Europe moves to close borders

End of Schengen? EU countries toughen border control

http://www.rt.com/news/315293-schengen-border-control-toughened/

A Hungarian soldier patrols along the border near Roszke, Hungary September 14, 2015. © Dado Ruvic / Reuters

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.

• 14 September 2015
  
  
  22:46 GMT
  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.
• 21:51 GMT
  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

• 
  

19:37 GMT

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.

#JHA - Pres conclusions: agreement in principle on relocation of 120.000 additional persons. Adoption forseen for JHA on 8.10. @eu2015lu

— Luxembourg RPUE (@RPUE_LU) September 14, 2015


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.


• 19:33 GMT
  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.
  
  
• 19:29 GMT

17:58 GMT

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.
• 17:49 GMT
  
  
  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."
  
  
• 17:04 GMT

  1,600 people arrive at #hegyeshalom train station to set off on foot to #nickelsdorf #austria. More trains expected. pic.twitter.com/a5pFRhxH7d

  — Rachael Newport (@Rachael_Newport) September 14, 2015

• 16:04 GMT

  We're really out of words. Look at this fully-barbwired Mad Max-inspired monster train @ #Roszke!#Hungary #refugees pic.twitter.com/2eMszDcoyX

  — Index.hu (@indexhu) September 14, 2015

  
  

Austria deploys army to boost refugee checks, Slovakia brings back border controls

The Austrian army has been sent to assist in introducing tougher border checks amid the growing migrant crisis, Reuters cited the country’s vice-chancellor as saying.

At least 2,200 soldiers will assist police in tackling the refugee crisis on the border, according to a statement from the Austrian government.
The soldiers will be deployed when their help is required, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said, Krone newspaper reported.


"If Germany carries out border controls, Austria must put strengthened border controls in place," Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner said in a joint news conference with Chancellor Werner Faymann. "We are doing that now.”

Thousands of asylum seekers continue to pour into Austria from Hungary. Police told Reuters that 8,400 people had arrived on Sunday.


"The flow of refugees remains very high,” the spokesman said. "I don't think I would be wrong in saying that we might exceed the threshold of 10,000 if it continues like this."


Police spokesman Gerald Pangl told AP that some 14,000 people had arrived in the town of Nickelsdorf on Sunday, and about 2,500 in the early hours of Monday.


http://www.rt.com/news/315239-austria-army-border-checks/.

EU Leaders Set to Approve Massive Detention Camps for Rejected Refugees

In a crunch meeting in Brussels to address the worsening refugee crisis, European Union (EU) ministers are expected to back a new plan that would provide for the detention of so-called “irregular migrants,” and construct larger refugee camps outside Europe to stop people from coming in.

Sputnik,

14 September, 2015

The Brussels meeting on Monday comes after Germany imposed temporary restrictions on its border with Hungary over the weekend, indicating that it may soon reach a limit in absorbing the flow of refugees, and signaling the need for a more comprehensive and collaborative approach to the crisis from other EU nations.

Germany backed a call by the European commission last week demanding at least 22 EU countries accept new quotas for the redistribution of 160,000 refugees stuck in Italy, Greece, and Hungary. The temporary restrictions imposed by Germany are widely viewed as a way to apply pressure on countries resisting the mandatory quotas, mainly in eastern and central Europe.

The new quota system has put EU ministers at loggerheads, with countries like Slovakia and the Czech Republic rejecting the proposal.  Ministers at the Brussels meeting are expected to water down demands for mandatory refugee quotas.

The ministers are also set to accept a new plan proposed by EU ambassadors ahead of the Brussels meeting. The plan, outlined in a four-page draft statement, calls for the establishment of larger refugee camps in Italy and Greece, where the initial flow of refugees begins as they journey into Europe, and for the establishment of "detention measures."

Obtained by the Guardian, the draft-statement said "reception facilities will be organized so as to temporarily accommodate people" in Italy and Greece, while their asylum claims are being processed. The draft emphasizes the need to process these claims quickly, outlining measures for those whose claims are rejected.

"It is crucial that robust mechanisms become operational immediately in Italy and Greece to ensure identification, registration and fingerprinting of migrants; to identify persons in need of international protection and support their relocation; and to identify irregular migrants to be returned," the statement said, according to the Guardian.

Further, European authorities are to establish "rapid border intervention teams," and deploy them at "sensitive external borders." The statement notes that those failed asylum seekers can also be interned if they attempt to leave to another country from Greece or Italy.

"When voluntary return is not practicable and other measures on return are inadequate to prevent secondary movements, detention measures…should be applied."

As ministers argue over the refugee quota, no long term solution regarding the redistribution of 160,000 refugees coming into the region has yet been reached. But it appears as though they are ready to agree on a medium-term solution outlined in the draft statement, which stresses the immediate need for the EU to fund and help build larger refugee camps outside Europe to accommodate those whose asylum claims have been rejected.

European states should aim "at developing safe and sustainable reception capacities in the affected regions and providing lasting prospects and adequate procedures for refugees and their families until return to their country of origin is possible," the statement said, according to the Guardian.

States should then "be in a position to find asylum applications of these persons inadmissible on safe third country grounds…after which swift assisted return can follow."