Unity eludes EU on migrant relocation

• 14 September 2015
• From the section Europe

EU interior ministers meeting in Brussels have agreed in principle to relocate 120,000 asylum seekers around the 28-nation bloc.

However, there was no agreement on a plan for mandatory quotas which some states are strongly opposed to.

Earlier, more European countries introduced temporary border checks, hours after Germany imposed controls on its border with Austria.

Tough new border controls come into force in the next hour in Hungary.

On Monday, police in Hungary completed a fence designed to stop thousands of migrants who have been crossing the border from Serbia.

The new laws allow police deployed along the border to arrest anyone considered an illegal immigrant or who tries to breach the new fence.

‘Not everyone on board’

Luxembourg, which holds the EU presidency, said the decision reached by ministers in Brussels was expected to be made law at a meeting on 8 October.

But regarding quotas, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said “not everyone is on board at the moment”.

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However, he added that there was a “large majority” in favour and they would revisit the issue in October.

He warned that the situation in Europe was “urgent and dramatic and time is of the essence”.

Leading up to the emergency meeting, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary were among the nations opposed to binding quotas.

German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said its border checks, announced on Sunday, were a signal that Germany “cannot accommodate all of the refugees alone”.

Austria, Slovakia, Poland and the Netherlands later said they would also tighten controls.

The moves are a challenge to the EU’s Schengen agreement on free movement, although the rules do allow for temporary controls in emergencies.

European states have been struggling to cope with a record influx of migrants, who are mainly trying to reach Germany and Sweden.

Austrian police said up to 7,000 people had arrived from Hungary on Monday, and 14,000 on Sunday.

Chancellor Werner Faymann said troops were also being deployed, mainly to provide humanitarian help within Austria, but would be sent to the border if necessary.

“If Germany carries out border controls, Austria must put strengthened border controls in place,” Vice-Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner said.

Most of the migrants who have moved north into Hungary in recent weeks have fled conflict, oppression and poverty in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Eritrea.

Many have been refusing to register in Greece or Hungary, fearing it will stop them being granted asylum in Germany or other EU states.

Earlier on Monday, the UN refugee agency warned that refugees could find themselves “in legal limbo”

It said announcements of different border control measures by European states “only underlines the urgency of establishing a comprehensive European response”.