Panos Kammenos, the Greek defence minister, warned that if the eurozone allowed Greece to go bust it would give EU travel papers to illegal immigrants crossing its borders or the 10,000 currently held in detention centres (REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis)

Greece will unleash a "wave of millions of economic migrants" and jihadists on Europe unless the eurozone backs down on austerity demands, the country's defence and foreign ministers have threatened.

The threat comes as Greece struggles to convince the eurozone and International Monastery Fund to continue payments on a £172bn bailout of Greek finances.

Without the funding, Greece will go bust later this month forcing the recession-ravaged and highly indebted country out of the EU's single currency.

Greece's borders with Turkey is the EU's frontline against illegal immigration and European measures to stop extremists travelling to and from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) bases in Syria and Iraq.

Panos Kammenos, the Greek defence minister, warned that if the eurozone allowed Greece to go bust it would give EU travel papers to illegal immigrants crossing its borders or the 10,000 currently held in detention centres.

Turkey faces a refugee crisis as 135,000 Kurds flee Isil. "If they deal a blow to Greece, then they should know the migrants will get papers to go to Berlin," he said.

"If Europe leaves us in the crisis, we will flood it with migrants, and it will be even worse for Berlin if in that wave of millions of economic migrants there will be some jihadists of the Islamic State too." Mr Kammenos, who is the leader of the Right-wing Independent Greeks party which is in coalition with Greece's ruling far-Left Syriza government, said that the EU's passport free "Schengen" travel zone left the eurozone vulnerable.

"If they strike us, we will strike them. We will give to migrants from everywhere the documents they need to travel in the Schengen area, so that the human wave could go straight to Berlin," he said.

Last week, Nikos Kotzias, the Greek foreign minister, also told a meeting of his EU colleagues that if Greece was forced out of the euro "there will be tens of millions of immigrants and thousands of jihadists".

EU officials have been so concerned by the Greek threats that the European Commission last week sought "assurances… that no measures to open up detention centres are being taken".

Britain would not be as badly hit as Germany if Greece opened its frontier with Turkey as it has retained border controls but the Greek threat would place extra pressure on crossings such as Calais and increase the overall terror threat for all Europe.

Greece and its eurozone creditors agreed two weeks ago to extend the Greek bailout but negotiations with the new government have run in trouble threatening to cut Athens off from funds by the end of March. (© Daily Telegraph, London)

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