Wednesday, 9 March 2016
Migrant crisis: Slovenia moves to 'shut down' Balkans route
Slovenia has introduced new border restrictions for
migrants as part of efforts to close the Balkans
route from Greece to Western Europe.
Only migrants who plan to seek asylum in the
country, or those with clear humanitarian needs will
be allowed entry.
In reaction, Serbia said it would close its borders
with Macedonia and Bulgaria to those without valid
documents.
The future of the EU's passport-free Schengen zone
is already in doubt.
Eight of its members, including Austria, Hungary
and Slovakia, have tightened border controls, leaving
thousands of migrants stranded in Greece.
Europe is facing its biggest refugee crisis since
World War Two. Last year, more than a million
people entered the EU illegally by boat. Most of
them were Syrian, fleeing the country's civil war.
Slovenia, which is an EU member, has been used as
a transit country by migrants trying to reach
Germany and other northern European states.
But Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said on
Tuesday the Balkan route was now effectively
"shutting down".
He said the restrictions, which came into force at
midnight local time (2300 GMT), were part of a
wider initiative which would see other Balkan
countries, as well as Greece and with the
cooperation of Turkey, turn back "all irregular
migrants".
The EU and Turkey are considering a radical plan
including proposals to return to Turkey all migrants
arriving in Greece. For each Syrian sent back, a
Syrian in Turkey would be resettled in the EU.
The UN expressed concern at the plan on Tuesday,
while Amnesty International called it a death blow
to the right to seek asylum.
Speaking to the BBC, Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary
General of the Council of Europe, said the proposal
to send migrants back would contravene
international law.
The deal, discussed at a summit in Brussels on
Monday, has not been finalised and talks will
continue ahead of an EU meeting on 17-18 March.
European leaders are billing their new proposal to
deal with the refugee and migrant influx as a
"game-changer", but the scheme is not agreed yet
and there are doubts about whether it it is practical
or even legal.
The centrepiece is a plan to take any refugees and
migrants who cross the sea to Greece in smugglers'
boats and return them, directly, to Turkey.
EU officials say whatever is finally agreed "will
comply with both European and international law".
Privately, though, some admit that, while the
assessment of their lawyers is "quite promising",
there are legal hurdles that must be overcome.
After Slovenia announced new restrictions, Serbia's
interior ministry said it would act accordingly.
It said it had been informed that Slovenia would
not receive migrants without valid visas and
passports.
"Bearing in mind that the new regime is
implemented by a member of the European Union,
Serbia cannot afford to become a collection centre
for refugees," it said in a statement.
It said Serbia, which is not a member of the EU or
the Schengen agreement, would "harmonise all
measures with the European Union and apply them
reciprocally in its southern and eastern borders".
Under the EU's Dublin Regulation, asylum seekers
have to lodge claims in their EU country of arrival.
However the bloc is said to be considering adopting
a centralised system for processing applications
instead.
More than 2,000 migrants, mostly from Syria, Iraq
and Afghanistan, continue to arrive daily in Greece
from Turkey.
Some 14,000 migrants are stranded around Idomeni
on Greece's border with Macedonia after Macedonia
closed its border to almost all.
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