With 'temporary' border controls and law enforcement forces sent to European frontiers to secure tougher checks, EU officials have agreed to relocate a further 120,000 asylum seekers around the bloc. It is still unclear how those relocated will be shared out.
22 September 2015
MEP and Belgian ex Foreign Minister Louis Michel urged to suspend Hungary’s right to vote in the European Council over its handling of the asylum seeker crisis.
"By mistreating these vulnerable people who came seeking protection, [Hungarian Prime Minister] Viktor Orban denies our most fundamental principles. The limits have been exceeded, Article 7 of the Treaty [of EU] must be implemented," said Michel in a statement.
Michel added that “immediate sanctions” should be applied to Budapest.
Islamic militants may recruit asylum seekers coming to Germany from war-torn Middle East countries and North Africa, said Hans-Georg Maassen, the president of Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency, as cited by Reuters.
"There is a big worry that Islamists in Germany, on the pretext of offering humanitarian help, could try to take advantage of the migrants' situation to convert and recruit those seeking asylum …Our attention is particularly focused on unaccompanied young refugees who could be easy prey for Islamists," he said.
21 September 2015
Prime Minister Viktor Orban called on all political parties in Hungary to support him in his struggle to deal with the asylum seeker crisis, Reuters reported. He added that EU member states are forced to protect themselves from the “brutal threat” of mass migration.
"Our borders are under threat, our life is based on a respect for the law... and the whole of Europe. We are being run over," he said.
20 September 2015
Hungary’s interior minister, Nebojsa Stefanovic, and his Serbian counterpart, Sandor Pinter, have opened one border crossing together – Horgos-1. The crossing was closed on September, 17, as Hungary closed its border trying to stop the influx of migrants and refugees. The agreement to open the crossing was reached by foreign ministers in Belgrade on Friday. Both sides say the decision is in line with economic interests of their countries.
Thirteen migrants died in Turkish waters when a boat carrying 46 people en route to Greece collided with a dry cargo vessel and capsized, a Turkish coast guard source said on Sunday. Six of those killed were children and 20 others were rescued, the source said. Seven of those rescued were receiving treatment. The boat had left the Turkish coast near Canakkale province. The search continues to find 13 missing people. (Reuters)
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday it is necessary to establish a fair system of distribution of refugees and migrants between European countries. He emphasized that France cannot accept all the people fleeing from the conflict zones.
Valls also proposed creating migrant and refugee reception centers in the countries of first entry – Italy and Greece – in order to redistribute asylum seekers across the EU from these centers. He also said that France committed to accommodate 30,000 Syrian refugees over the next two years.
A dinghy transporting asylum seekers has sunk near the Greek island of Lesbos.
Twenty-six asylum seekers are missing, according to the coastguard, according to Reuters.
"They [the asylum seekers] told rescuers there were 46 people in the inflatable dinghy," a spokeswoman for the coastguard said.
19 September 2015
The UK Navy's HMS Enterprise has saved 377 migrants off the coast of Libya, as part of an Italian-led mission to provide “life-saving assistance”. This operation combined with those of other European ships saw more than 4,000 asylum seekers saved in 20 different operations on Saturday, the Ministry of Defence said.
“Once again, our Royal Navy has rescued a large number of migrants from the Mediterranean,” Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said. “Our focus remains on smashing the criminal smuggling gangs who are putting innocent lives at risk.”
Ten more buses carrying asylum seekers have arrived in the Croatian village of Beremend, located on the Hungarian border, RIA Novosti reported. The Red Cross and other volunteers have distributed hygiene and drugs kits along with water, food and clothing. The new arrivals will cross the Croatian-Hungarian border on foot, before boarding busses again to head to the Hungarian-Austrian border.
The European Union is capable of giving shelter to a limited number of asylum seekers. Once the limit is reached, the rest will have to head back to safe countries in the Middle East, where "they can live in security and without persecution," Germany's interior minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Saturday in an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel.
"We cannot accept all the people who are fleeing conflict zones or poverty and want to come to Europe or Germany," he said.
The conservative minister also called for the reduction of benefits for migrants and refugees as well for the implementation of the so-called Dublin Regulation, which requires sending each person back to the first EU country that they reached.
The proposals were met with disapproval from Britain and eastern European countries.
Hungary has finished the construction of a 41-kilometer barbed wire fence along its border with Croatia to curb the influx of asylum seekers, defense ministry spokesman Attila Kovacs told AFP.
"The fence was finished overnight Friday," he added.
The remaining border, 330 kilometers long, is situated along the hard-to-cross Drava River.
Eight thousand asylum seekers arrived from Croatia on Friday, and the influx isn’t expected to slow down soon, Hungarian senior security adviser Gyorgy Bakondi has said.
Hungary could block Croatia's accession to the EU's passport-free Schengen zone if it fails to defend the bloc's external borders, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned. "If Croatia puts up its hands and says, no, I don't want to defend the borders, then Hungary can only say that it isn't ready to join Schengen when the moment comes to decide," Antal Rogan, head of Orban's political cabinet, told InfoRadio news station, according to Reuters.
Bulgaria's security forces have detained 137 foreigners in Sofia in a sweep aimed at curbing illegal migration. The migrants and refugees, who claimed they were from Syria, were detained following an operation by the state security agency (SANS) and border police on Friday night, the interior ministry said, adding the foreigners, who were detained after checks in hostels and small hotels in the capital, would be questioned. It is yet to be determined how they entered Bulgaria and whether they should be granted refugee status.
Around a thousand refugees are waiting for buses in the Croatian town of Tovarnik, bordering Serbia. The buses’ final destination has not been disclosed by Croatian authorities.
A five-year-old girl has drowned, and a number of other adult asylum seekers have disappeared trying to raft to Greece.
Between 22 to 26 refugees and migrants were traveling on the raft that started sinking five kilometers to the north of the town of Mytilene. Thirteen people were rescued.
The Macedonian parliament has prolonged the emergency situation regime at the border with Greece until next June, according to the Serbian PTC TV channel.
The decision was taken because it’s expected that asylum seekers will continue to go through the northern and southern borders of the country.
Some 83,000 people have crossed the Macedonian border over the last three months, the country’s police reported. However, Interior Minister Mitro Cavkov provided a figure of 300,000.
Hungary's Defense Minister Istvan Simicsko has called up volunteer military reservists to help deal with the "mass migration crisis," state news agency MTI says, as cited by Reuters. It’s been reported the decision was made at the request of the chief of the Hungarian general staff. The reservists main task is to reinforce understaffed garrisons, as many soldiers are deployed at the border.
18 September 2015
At least 10 people have suffered injuries to their eyes after Slovenian police used pepper spray on a crowd of about 500 asylum seekers trying to cross the border from the Croatian village of Harmica, local media reports.
More than 17,000 migrants and refugees arrived in Croatia since Wednesday morning when Hungary closed its border with Serbia, Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said on Friday as cited by the Reuters. More than 3,000 of them left for Hungary, he added.
Slovenian police have blocked the path to Slovenia for 200 migrants and refugees entering from Croatia. The migrants and refugees crossed a small bridge over the Sutla river, where they were blocked by the Slovenian police, the Reuters reports.
Earlier a group of Slovenian activists crossed the Croatian border shouting "Refugees, welcome!"
Bosnia and Herzegovina can accept 5,000 migrants and refugees but will close its border after that, Minister of Security Dragan Mektic said at a press conference on Friday. He said that refugees and migrants are likely to arrive in Bosnia and Herzegovina because of the closure of other countries’ borders but warned that the state will accept them in accordance with its capabilities. Mektic also said that Bosnia and Herzegovina is ready to become a transit country in case neighboring EU states are ready to accept migrants and refugees crossing its territory.
Several thousand refugees and migrants resumed their march to the Greek-Turkish border on Friday, but were later stopped by Turkish security forces and sent back to a roadside camp where they spent the last three days. Several hundred asylum seekers started a standoff with police on Tuesday when they tried to cross the border near the city of Edirne. By Friday the number of refugees and migrants had increased up to several thousands.
Dursun Ali Sahin, Edirne’s governor, said the refugees will not be allowed to cross the border until they have an invitation from neighboring or other EU states.
Norway may impose border controls if the number of asylum seekers is too high. "We are assessing various measures. Increased border control is one of the things we are considering," Anders Anundsen told Reuters
"It depends on the numbers that arrive. If they were to increase significantly or we believe we don't have sufficient control of our entry points, then we'll have to impose border controls. That's something we're continuously considering," he added.
He also expressed concern that there is a lack of registration of migrants and refugees in Sweden and Denmark.
Asylum applications hit 213,200 in the EU during the second quarter of 2015, 85 percent more than a year ago, the European statistics agency reports as cited by the Associated Press.
Germany has 38 percent of all applicants, Hungary 15 percent, Austria eight, while Italy, France and Sweden each have seven percent.
Syrians and Afghans make up a third of all asylum seekers.
Hungarian police have started to board asylum seekers on to buses at the border village of Beremend, where they had earlier been delivered by Croatian buses.
Hungarian police and soldiers with machine guns lined up at the border village of Beremend as Croatian buses delivered hundreds of refugees there. The convoy of more than 10 buses was heading to the city of Osijek, eastern Croatia, but suddenly turned towards the Hungarian border.
President Simonetta Sommaruga says Switzerland does not expect an influx of migrants, adding that border guards are ready to increase spot checks if necessary.
"But we have no need for systematic border controls at this stage," she said as cited by Reuters.
The Swiss government also said it would accept up to 1,500 asylum seekers who are registered in Italy in Greece. Switzerland also committed to raise by 70 million Swiss francs its aid for people affected by conflicts in Syria, Iraq and the Horn of Africa.
The Interior Ministry of Slovenia said on Friday there was no legal basis for allowing a corridor for migrants to cross the country en route to Western European countries, Reuters reports. Slovenia expects about 1,000 refugees in next 24 hours. Ljubljana is planning to abide by EU rules and to receive asylum requests, but reject illegal migrants.
Slovenian Interior Minister Bostjan Sefic has accused Croatia of breaking the rules of the EU and the Schengen zone after the Croatian prime minister said his country would not register or accommodate refugees and migrants. "The actions of Croatia are not in line with EU and Schengen systems as they decided they are no longer registering migrants," Sefic said, as cited by Reuters. He added that police are reinforcing units in advance of an influx of asylum seekers from Croatia.
Croatia’s interior minister Ranko Ostojic has told local N1 TV that if the asylum seeker situation continues, “it is a matter of time” before border traffic will be shut down completely.
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Croatia "cannot and will not accept this burden any more", Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic has declared.
"They will get food, water and medical help, and then they can move on. The European Union must know that Croatia will not become a migrant 'hotspot'. We have hearts, but we also have heads," Milanovic said.
The prime minister has also urged a meeting of the National Security Council. He also spoke of "Plan B", which is to no longer accept and accommodate migrants and refugees.
Hungary has begun building a fence on the border with Croatia to curb the influx of asylum seekers. It has deployed hundreds of soldiers and police to step-up security, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public radio.
“We must implement the same measures as on the Serbian-Hungarian border,” Orban said.
Six hundred soldiers are protecting the territory, and 500 more are will be deployed on Friday. Plus, 700 security forces will be added over the weekend to enforce the border.
The fence will be 41 kilometers long, spanning a critical stretch of land on the border.
Migrants and refugees are heading into Croatia from Serbia, arriving from fields around the closed border crossing of Sid-Tovarnik, a witness told Reuters.
Slovenian police say they have stopped a train at Dobova train station on Slovenia's side of the border with Croatia. The train had some 200 refugees on board.
“The train with some 200 refugees on it has been stopped,” police spokeswoman Vesna Drole told Reuters. It is the largest group of refugees to have attempted entry to Slovenia since the current refugee crisis started, police statistics show.
17 September 2015
Slovenia has stopped rail passenger traffic at the border crossing with Croatia in Dobova, STA news agency reports. The move was made in accordance with an agreement between the Slovenian and Croatian police.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto accused Croatia of sending migrants towards Slovenia and Hungary without any registration, saying this proves that Croatia is not ready to join the Schengen Area, Reuters reported on Thursday.
Hungary violated international law in response to the asylum seeker crisis, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said in the statement.
“The images of women and young children being assaulted with tear gas and water cannons at Hungary’s border with Serbia were truly shocking. I am appalled at the callous, and in some cases illegal, actions of the Hungarian authorities in recent days…Some of these actions amount to clear violations of international law,” Zeid said.
He also expressed concern about “the xenophobic and anti-Muslim views that appear to lie at the heart of current Hungarian government policy.”
Reports emerge of an angry stand-off at the Croatian station, as security forces are trying to deal with the huge crowds of asylum seekers.
Slovenia has reintroduced border controls with other European nations: its border with Hungary will remain closed for at least 10 days, authorities said.
The step didn’t breach the Schengen agreement, Slovenian authorities said, as it was taken because of the “serious threat to public policy or internal security.”
First buses arrive to take asylum seekers at Tovarnik, Croatia, to another station where a train is waiting, AFP’s Eric Randolph reports from the scene.
The French government has evicted over 600 refugees and migrants from their two tent camps near the Paris’s Austerlitz train station and the town-hall of the 18th district of the French capital, the Guardian’s Angelique Chrisafis reported.
The asylum seekers were put on coaches, with the authorities promising them temporary accommodation in special facilities in Paris and in the vicinity.
However, hundreds are still in the city’s north, staying at an abandoned school building, in reportedly unsanitary conditions.
Some 6,200 people have arrived in Croatia, according to the Interior Ministry, as more and more asylum seekers re-route from the closed Hungarian border.
Hungarian authorities claim that the police have used force at the border after a mob attack orchestrated by a “terrorist,” according to AP.
Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said that the unidentified Syrian man was “directing the attacks.”
Twenty-two people were detained, including the man who was allegedly “carrying out an act of terrorism.”
The Italian region of Lombardy has approved new rules set to penalize the hotels which host asylum seekers on their premises in the framework of the government’s scheme, the Local reports.
The step was supported by the regional Governor Roberto Maroni's Northern League party and the center-right forces, with other politicians opposing the move and pledging to declare it unconstitutional once it is enacted.
Germany has extended controls to the border with the Czech Republic to put an end to human traffickers and assist in the asylum seekers’ situation, federal police spokesman Christian Meinhold said.
The extended border controls began on Wednesday on the A17 motorway that links Germany with the Czech Republic.
Since that time, four traffickers have been detained.
The number of asylum seekers that entered Germany Wednesday has reached 7,266 people, according to Federal Police spokeswoman Judith Toelle. On Tuesday police stopped 3,442 asylum seekers.
"Most of them were picked up when crossing the German-Austrian border," Toelle added.
5,650 refugees have entered Croatia, local police said. It comes a day after Hungary closed the border with Serbia, forcing thousands to make a detour westwards.
"The migrants can be seen entering Croatia around several crossing points," police said, as quoted by Reuters.
Bulgaria is sending more forces to step up security along its border with Turkey in an attempt to avoid an influx of refugees and migrants, Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev said.
"There is a change in the situation in the past few days and it is hard to predict where the refugee wave will head...so we are standing ready," Nenchev told public BNR radio.
Fifty soldiers have already been deployed, and 160 more may be sent by the end of Thursday. The Bulgarian army could dispatch up to 1,000 troops to help border police if needed, he added.
16 September 2015
Hungary plans to build a fence along parts of its border with Croatia and Romania in addition to the already-existing barrier on its border with Serbia in the light of the most recent developments in the European refugee crisis, the country’s prime minister, Victor Orban, said in an interview with Austrian newspaper Die Presse.
“We will … erect a fence at certain locations on the Croatian border,” Orban told Die Presse.
“We have decided to build a fence also on the border with Romania,” he added.
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The Hungarian ambassador has been summoned by Romania to discuss the extension of the border fence, Reuters reported, citing Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
According to German police, about 700 asylum seekers have entered Germany from Austria with 700 more expected to follow shortly.
“The situation is very tense. People enter Freilassing via various crossings. Some groups sit in roadside ditches, not knowing where they are and where to go. Our police receive them,” said Reiner Scharf, spokesman for the federal police in Rosenheim, a German border town.
Only 400 asylum seekers out of 2,000 are still at Salzburg rail station, with the police taking those who arrive by train to a new shelter near the German border by bus.
An Iraqi man has been found guilty of illegally crossing the Hungarian border fence, with a court sentencing him to 1-year’s expulsion from Hungary, in the first ruling under new strict legislation.
"This is a message to others, to potential culprits, that they should not commit this crime," Judge Krisztian Kemenes told the court.
Slovenia will temporarily establish controls near the border with Hungary, STA News Agency said, citing the prime minister.
In Austria, around 1,000 asylum seekers who had previously gathered in Salzburg train station left for the German border on foot after local authorities suspended the rail service.
"Salzburg had been a path to Germany [for the asylum seekers] until the decision this morning not to let any trains through. So they've decided to take it into their own hands,” city spokesman Johannes Greifeneder said, as quoted by Reuters.
Austria will extend stricter border checks with Slovenia in a matter of hours, its interior ministry said, as cited by Reuters.
Croatia's Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic has said the country will allow free passage to the Syrian refugees, according to AFP.
The EU is starting a new "iron curtain" in Europe, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said in Brussels today. The official is "very disappointed", but "did not expect anything different" from the meeting on migration held on Monday. Hahn believes the EU's current behavior and "lack of solidarity" only puts strain on member relations, he told journalists.
Rail traffic between Austria's Salzburg and Germany has halted on the orders of authorities, according to Austrian rail opverator OEBB.
Hungarian military surveyors and engineers have been spotted mapping out the line of a border fence extension along the frontier with Romania, local witnesses told Reuters.
At least 366 asylum seekers were rounded up by Hungarian police on Tuesday, police data showed. The numbers have reduced greatly from Tuesday when Budapest said they would close the main land route for asylum seekers entering the EU. Earlier on Monday at least 9,380 were rounded up by Hungarian police.
Austrian authorities have introduced stricter border checks, Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner told the broadcaster ORF.
"These border controls should be an important signal to the world…There can be no borderless flow of migrants," she added.
Earlier on Monday Austria said it had deployed 2,200 soldiers to boost refugee checks on its borders.
"If Germany carries out border controls, Austria must put strengthened border controls in place," Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner said.
Croatian police have said they are registering asylum seekers, entering the country from Serbia, Reuters reported. The refugees will be sent on to asylum centers near Croatia’s capital, Zagreb.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a special meeting with 16 German minister-presidents at the Federal Chancellery in Berlin to discuss asylum and refugee policy.
"Most of the German federal states, especially with the highest number of refugees allocated, support the central government and want to help it actively. This is what the central government wants to do on the national level but we are waiting here a joint signal from the EU," Merkel said to the press after the meeting.
According to Merkel, the refugee numbers have been recently increasing at great pace. The chancellor stressed that "federal states support the central government in the objective to reach a fair refugee distribution among EU members. It is the question of overall understanding in the EU. And it is a positive signal that interior and justice ministers hold talks next Tuesday."
Several refugees were detained by Hungarian security officials in Roszke, Tuesday night, after allegedly entering the country without documents meaning they are liable to be arrested.
The situation was tense at the border between the Serbian town of Horgos, near to the Hungarian town of Roszke, Tuesday, following the Hungarian authorities' decision to officially close the country's border earlier in the day.
15 September 2015
It is up to Europe to decide on how to deal with the flood of refugees from Syria, the US said. White House spokesman John Earnest told the media on Tuesday that while Washington expects the EU nations to find a solution by themselves, the US remains committed to taking in more refugees. However, he did not directly comment on whether Washington supports mandatory quotas for refugees in Europe.
An extraordinary EU interior ministers meeting on migration has been called for next Tuesday, Luxembourg has announced.
Greece's interim maritime minister, Christos Zois, told Reuters that the refugee crisis "is not Greece's problem alone. We're not guarding Greece's borders, we're guarding the European Union's borders. We need support - economic and moral support."
Of the record 430,000 refugees and migrants that have made the journey across the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year, 309,000 have arrived via Greece, according to the International Organization for Migration.
In July and August alone, Greece saw 150,000 arrivals, Zois said.
Europe's border agency, Frontex, is preparing to speed up identification of illegal migrants, and will help deport them in large numbers.
"When you have up to 40 percent of migrants coming from a third country not granted refugee status and if nothing happens, if they are not returned, what message does the EU convey to potential migrants?" Frontex head Fabrice Leggeri told Reuters.
European Council President Donald Tusk says he will announce on Thursday whether an emergency summit on migration is to be called.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for a special EU refugee summit, urging unity in Europe.
It comes after one of Merkel's ministers stated that those who did not take in their fair share of asylum seekers could face financial penalties.
A spokesman from Austria's Interior Ministry says the country will begin enforcing tougher border controls from midnight on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
The country's interior minister has informed the European Commission of the move, according to the spokesperson.
Slovenian President Borut Pahor has expressed support for the refugee quota system, saying the crisis may prove a bigger challenge to the European Union than the global financial crisis did.
"We need a common European policy on the migrant issue...If that is not reached shortly that could present a danger to the existence of the European Union," Pahor said, as quoted by Reuters.
Switzerland says it is ready to accept the migrant quota proposed by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker last week, if the EU accepts the plan.
"Only a system of sharing [refugees] can function in such unpredictable situations," Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga told a news conference during a two-day visit to Slovenia.
"All states should stick to Dublin obligations and if the EU will stick to the Dublin system then Switzerland will do so as well," she added.
Bucharest has criticized Hungary's plan to extend its new border fence towards Romania, which was announced on Tuesday.
"The Foreign Ministry considers that erecting a fence between two European Union member states that are strategic partners to be not a correct gesture from a political point of view and not in line with the European spirit," the Romanian Foreign Ministry said. "The Hungarian side was notified about this stance."
Hungary has reviewed and rejected 16 asylum requests on Tuesday, Reuters reports. Three of the rejections are now being appealed. UNHCR spokesman Erno Simon says the requests were rejected within mere hours of submission in the so-called ‘transit zone’ at Hungary's southern border, meaning the refugees will now be returned to Serbia.
Another 32 claims were filed and are being processed, Gyorgy Bakondi, security advisor to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, told a news conference.
Another 174 people were caught crossing the border illegally, and are now facing criminal prosecution.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman in Hungary says some of the new border rules are "really alarming." The elements in question include Budapest's decision to designate Serbia as a "safe third country" for refugees to be sent back to, as well as criminal punishments for those caught crossing the border illegally.
Another concern is the "very small period of time" of mere hours that Hungary is assigning to reviewing asylum claims before granting admission. "There are many details of the new law, the new legislation, which are really alarming," the spokesman, Erno Simon, told Reuters.
Measures to strengthen Schengen area border controls create problems for non-EU member Serbia, Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Tuesday as he spoke to his Czech counterpart Lubomir Zaoralek in Prague. Returning migrants to Serbia was "unacceptable," Dacic said.
Hungary is preparing to extend the border fence towards Romania, should migration pressure change direction, the foreign minister told a news conference on Tuesday.
"We have made the decision to start preparatory works for the construction of a fence starting from the Hungarian-Serbian-Romanian border at a reasonable length should migration pressure shift in the direction of Romania," Peter Szijjarto said.
Border checks by Germany have slowed the flow of migrants and refugees through Austria, causing train delays and cancellations near Austria's northwestern border on Tuesday, the national rail company said.
"Many travellers are already waiting at Salzburg's main station for their onward journey," rail company OeBB said in a statement, without providing figures. "OeBB advises travellers against journeys to Germany," the statement reads as cited by Reuters. "Because of border controls, there could be backlogs and train cancellations.”
Slovak PM Robert Fico says every asylum seeker who crosses the border illegally will be detained.
The International Organization for Migration has slammed Hungary for a crackdown on migrants and refugees crossing its southern frontier. The agency says it "looks like" a contravention of its obligations under United Nations and European Union rules on refugees and asylum.
Hungary "has obligations to follow which it looks like this new legislation would be a contravention of," Magdalena Majkowska-Tomkin, head of the Hungary office of the IOM told Reuters. "Both the international UN conventions on the status of refugees, but also EU legislation regarding asylum and also regarding criminal procedures."
Austrian authorities announced they will send more troops to control its eastern borders amid the asylum seeker crisis, Reuters reported.
EU indecision may lead to more asylum seeker deaths, according to Leonard Doyle, chief spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
"As dangers increase we fear that the indecisions in Europe will lead to more deaths in the Aegean [Sea],” he said.
Fewer migrants have passed the border to Austria after Hungary closed the frontier, a spokesman for the Austrian police in the eastern province of Burgenland told Reuters.
"The night was a bit quieter. We have had around 1,800 people from midnight until now…We think that many thousand people were still on the go in Hungary before the border closed and they will surely make their way to [the town of] Nickelsdorf here in Austria and try to continue their journey to Germany," the spokesman added.
The Hungarian authorities have made a decision to declare a crisis in two southern countries due to the influx of refugees, a government spokesman told Reuters.
Hungarian police detained nine Syrian and seven Afghan migrants early on Tuesday for illegally crossing the Serbian border fence, police spokesperson Viktoria Csiszer-Kovacs said. The migrants are accused of breaching the razor wire fence at the frontier. Hungary has introduced strict new laws to secure its southern border.
Hungarian police rounded up 9,380 migrants who were crossing into the country from Serbia on Monday, the highest daily figure this year, law enforcement said on Tuesday.
14 September 2015
Budapest will reject and turn back those refugees who arrive at the border without previously seeking asylum in Serbia, according to government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs. "Certainly, as that is the international legal rule, therefore it must be done that way," said Kovacs.
Hungary has deployed a train wagon with razor wire attached to its front to seal a railway passage in its border fence near Roszke village, marking the closure of all crossing points with Serbia except official road checkpoints.
An initial agreement on the redistribution of 120,000 migrants among EU member states was reached at the EU ministers’ emergency meeting on Monday. The final decision on migrant shares within the EU will be taken on October 8.
At the same time, the ministers have failed to agree on the introduction of obligatory quotas among EU countries to provide asylum for refugees, TASS reported citing Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.
EU's Frontex agency, which is in charge of European border management, should be granted the right to send economic migrants back to their home countries, without providing them with asylum rights, the French Interior Ministry said on Monday.
Frontex officials should also be provided with arms to fulfill such duties, French minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on the sidelines of emergency meeting in Brussels, as cited by TASS.
Hungary has closed the airspace along its border with Serbia, Reuters reported on Monday, citing the country's National Transport Authority. The airspace is closed in a 20 kilometer (12 miles) strip along the border, up to a height of 1,350 meters (4,500 feet), and will not affect scheduled international passenger flights.
The closure came into effect earlier on September 10, the official statement said, and will remain until further notice. According to authorities, the move is aimed at helping law enforcement and ambulance services to safely use the airspace during the migrant crisis.
Finland will increase the monitoring of its borders, Finland's Interior Minister Petteri Orpo told reporters in Brussels on Monday, adding that the country also plans to open reception centers for migrants with particular attention to its northern border.
Some 1,700 asylum seekers arrived in Finland last week, officials said, with many traveling by train through Sweden. "Finland is not a transit country, but the country of destination," Orpo said. With no identity checks at the Swedish-Finland border crossing, many migrants have not registered with officials, with the minister describing the situation as "extremely difficult."
France and Germany have coordinated their efforts amid the migrant crisis, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Monday upon his arrival to an EU meeting on the situation at internal borders. The two countries insist on all-European migrant redistribution system, which is impossible without accurate control at EU borders, Cazeneuve said.
All people arriving at frontiers must be registered when crossing the border, which will allow authorities to clearly distinguish refugees having the right for asylum from economic migrants, TASS cited the French minister as saying. All EU countries with no exception must fully take their share of migrants, he added.
Hungarian police have blocked the main informal migrant crossing point from Serbia, Reuters reported. According to the agency's reporter, a line of police in riot gear blocked off a railway track used by migrants to cross the frontier, backed by mounted police and soldiers. A helicopter was also reported to be circling the area.
Thousands of asylum seekers in Roszke, Hungary, near the Serbian border, are being transported on special trains to the Austrian border without registration, Reuters reported the UNHCR as saying. According to the agency, the move was prompted by a record surge in arrivals, with the authorities unable to register the people entering the EU on the spot.
Starting Tuesday, asylum-seekers arriving to Hungary must use only a police-supervised road crossing. Amid the crisis, people arriving in Hungary from Serbia have walked across the border on train tracks near Roszke, getting through razor-wire-topped fences. To block the highest-profile gap in the border security fence, a cargo container lined top to bottom with razor wire will be deployed at midnight Tuesday, AP reported citing Hungarian police.
The Hungarian government has promised a border crackdown, Reuters reported on Monday. Authorities are threatening to arrest and jail anyone who's caught trying to cross its southern, EU, border from non-EU Serbia undetected.
During the weekend, PM Viktor Orban has sent hundreds of new policemen to the border with Serbia to stem the flow of migrants. Nearly 900 new officers have been deployed.
At least 2,200 Austrian soldiers will assist police in tackling the refugee and migrant crisis on the border, the government announced. The army has been sent to assist in introducing tougher border checks, while thousands of asylum seekers continue to pour into Austria from Hungary. Some 8,400 people had arrived on Sunday, Reuters reported citing police.
Slovakia has introduced temporary controls on its borders with Hungary and Austria, the Interior Ministry said. An additional 220 police officers have been sent to its borders.
To tackle the flow of asylum seekers, Germany introduced border checks over the weekend. With more than 2,100 extra police being dispatched to secure its borders, the Interior Ministry has abruptly introduced "temporary" border controls with Austria.
"At this moment Germany is temporarily introducing border controls again along [the EU's] internal borders. The focus will be on the border to Austria at first," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere announced on Sunday, adding that the decision was made following an internal vote between the ruling coalition partners.
EU Justice and Home Affairs Council that deals with policies on various cross-border issues is set to meet on Monday following temporary reintroduction of border controls by Germany, EU Commission chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas announced.
"The EU institutions have the task to ensure the proportionality of the exceptional measures," European Commission said in its statement, adding that it "will closely monitor the situation and keep the European Parliament and the Council fully informed."