Express•Getty Greece will be excluded from the open borders area. Pictured left is Lesbos

FREE now and never miss the top politics stories again. SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up fornow and never miss the top politics stories again. We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

Eurocrats will impose checks between Greece and EU countries after deciding the country has failed to control the migrant influx. More than one million people landed in the country via Turkey last year, overwhelming Athens's ability to keep track of them all.

Getty Border fences, like this one between Serbia and Hungary, have been springing up across Europe

EU officials have formally served the Greek government with notice that it will be sealed off. Documents composed in Brussels now give the country three months to fix the "serious deficiencies" in their border control regime. But EU sources say that the requirements are so stiff that struggling Greece has no hope of being able to shape up in time.

Getty Migrants wait at a transport hub to be processed

The rules are an emergency provision to protect the Schengen agreement, which tore down borders across mainland Europe in 1995. Greece will be allowed back into the passport-free zone in 2018 if it manages to take back control of its borders.

Free movement through the south European country has passed the strain of the migrant crisis onto other nations, many of which threw up border fences in response. EU bosses fear that ostracising Greece is the only way to stop the entire project from collapsing.

Migrant crisis explained in numbers Fri, July 22, 2016 A monthly record of 218,394 migrants and refugees reached Europe by sea in October, the UN says, almost as many as the total number of arrivals in 2014. We take a look at the shocking statistics facing the humanitarian crisis. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 47 137 migrants of African origins were rescued by coast guard boats off the coast of Libya