Deep divisions persist within the European Union (EU) as thousands of distraught refugees arrive from war-torn countries, mainly Syria, while continuing to head towards Western Europe via the continent's southern frontiers.
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The French foreign minister on Monday criticised Hungary for its move to erect a fence on its border to stop people as Germany and the UK joined in to call for action to defend the "dignity" of refugees ahead of fresh emergency talks on 14 September 2015.
Packed trains arrived in Austria and Germany from Hungary on Monday, as EU asylum rules collapsed under the strain of an unprecedented migration crisis.
As men, women and children continued to arrive from the east, authorities let thousands of undocumented people travel on towards Germany, the favoured destination for many.
The arrivals are a crisis for the EU, which has eliminated border controls between 26 Schengen area states but requires asylum seekers to apply in the first EU country they reach.
In line with EU rules, an Austrian police spokesman said only those who had not already requested asylum in Hungary would be allowed through, but the sheer pressure of numbers prevailed and trains were allowed to move on.
Still, some security measures are taken: Late on Monday, a train from Vienna to Hamburg was met in Passau, Germany, by police wearing bullet-proof vests. Police entered the train and several passengers were asked to accompany them to be registered. About 40 people were seen on the platform. Police said they would be taken to a police station for registration.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country expects some 800,000 migrants this year, said the crisis could destroy the Schengen open borders accord if other EU countries did not take a greater share.
“If we don’t succeed in fairly distributing refugees then of course the Schengen question will be on the agenda for many,” she said at a news conference in Berlin. “We stand before a huge national challenge. That will be a central challenge not only for days or months but for a long period of time.”
The UK, which is outside the Schengen zone, says the border-free system is part of the problem, and a bloc of central European countries plans to oppose any binding quotas.
All the while, trains from Hungary carrying hundreds of refugees started arriving in Vienna and Munich early on Tuesday. Hungary crammed the refugees, many of them fleeing Syria's civil war, into at least four trains leaving Budapest for Austria or Germany. Trains, for god’s sake, TRAINS!!!! This REALLY leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth. And that fence…for §$%&’s sake, Hungary, really?????
Hungary (with its 175km razor-wire fence along its border with Serbia) is part of Europe, which has values, and Europe does not respect those values by putting up fences that Europe would not even use for animals.
The attitude of a certain number of European countries, particularly in the east, who oppose a quota scheme for the distribution of refugees across EU member, is scandalous. Europe needs to stop being moved and start moving!
On Monday evening, around 20,000 people took part in a pro-refugee rally in Vienna, calling for the fair and respectful treatment of people fleeing from conflicts mainly in the Middle East and Africa. The protest on Monday came just days after 71 refugees were found dead in a truck on an Austrian highway. With many dressed in white, the protesters marched through the streets of the Austrian capital, holding candles and banners with slogans reading "Human Rights are Borderless" and "No Person is Illegal".
After hundreds of far-right protesters rioted last week in the small town of Heidenau, Germany in opposition to the temporary housing of asylum seekers there, Chancellor Merkel travelled to the eastern city of Heidenau last Wednesday to deliver what critics called a long-overdue public statement against a terrifying wave of attacks on asylum seekers.
Germany is currently witnessing a severe increase in right-wing and neo-Nazi attacks, including a series of arsons targeting refugee centres. Merkel condemned last weekend’s violence as: “Shameful and appalling.”
“We can have no tolerance toward those who are not willing to help,” Merkel told reporters. “The more that people make that clear, the stronger we will be.”
On Monday, the chancellor strongly condemned the riots in Heidenau at a joint news conference with French President François Hollande during his official visit to Berlin. “It is repulsive how far-right extremists and neo-Nazis are trying to herald dumb messages of hate,” Merkel said. “At the same time, it is shameful how citizens, even families with kids, are supporting these things by tagging along. Germany is a country which respects the dignity of every single individual. This is what it says in our constitution, and this applies to everyone staying in our country.”
France, Germany, and the UK have pressed for better processing of refugees arriving in southern Europe, as countries such as Greece, Italy, and Hungary have struggled to cope with the influx of refugees. Some 300,000 people have crossed this year alone. Hungary has received almost 150,000 refugees so far this year, 50,000 this month alone, mostly crossing from Serbia. Coast guards in Greece said on Monday that they had picked up nearly 2,500 people from the seas over the past two days. It is chartering ferries packed with refugees from the Island of Lesbos to the mainland. The vast majority of the refugees entering Hungary, which is also a member of Europe's passport-free Schengen zone, are bound for more prosperous EU countries such as Germany and Sweden. Last year, Sweden welcomed more asylum seekers — 81,000 — on a per capita basis than even Germany, while Britain resettled just 187 Syrians under a program to protect those considered the most vulnerable to persecution at home. Slovakia says it will accept 200 Syrians, but only if they're Christians.
"It will be the largest influx in the country's postwar history," Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister, said recently. "We can master this challenge. I don't think this will overwhelm Germany; we can handle this."
But Germany has also warned that it will not shoulder the burden alone, and called on its neighbours to step up to the plate. "Europe as a whole must move, and its states must share the responsibility for refugees seeking asylum," Merkel said Monday, warning that the lack of a unified response could endanger the cherished principle of free movement across EU borders.
So far, the migrant crisis has made a mockery of the EU, with as many policies toward migrants and refugees as there are countries within the 28-member EU.
The French foreign minister on Monday criticised Hungary for its move to erect a fence on its border to stop people as Germany and the UK joined in to call for action to defend the "dignity" of refugees ahead of fresh emergency talks on 14 September 2015.
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| Hungary has finished construction of a fence on the country’s southern border with Serbia. |
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| Bulgaria's wall with Turkey |
Packed trains arrived in Austria and Germany from Hungary on Monday, as EU asylum rules collapsed under the strain of an unprecedented migration crisis.
As men, women and children continued to arrive from the east, authorities let thousands of undocumented people travel on towards Germany, the favoured destination for many.
The arrivals are a crisis for the EU, which has eliminated border controls between 26 Schengen area states but requires asylum seekers to apply in the first EU country they reach.
In line with EU rules, an Austrian police spokesman said only those who had not already requested asylum in Hungary would be allowed through, but the sheer pressure of numbers prevailed and trains were allowed to move on.
Still, some security measures are taken: Late on Monday, a train from Vienna to Hamburg was met in Passau, Germany, by police wearing bullet-proof vests. Police entered the train and several passengers were asked to accompany them to be registered. About 40 people were seen on the platform. Police said they would be taken to a police station for registration.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country expects some 800,000 migrants this year, said the crisis could destroy the Schengen open borders accord if other EU countries did not take a greater share.
“If we don’t succeed in fairly distributing refugees then of course the Schengen question will be on the agenda for many,” she said at a news conference in Berlin. “We stand before a huge national challenge. That will be a central challenge not only for days or months but for a long period of time.”
The UK, which is outside the Schengen zone, says the border-free system is part of the problem, and a bloc of central European countries plans to oppose any binding quotas.
All the while, trains from Hungary carrying hundreds of refugees started arriving in Vienna and Munich early on Tuesday. Hungary crammed the refugees, many of them fleeing Syria's civil war, into at least four trains leaving Budapest for Austria or Germany. Trains, for god’s sake, TRAINS!!!! This REALLY leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth. And that fence…for §$%&’s sake, Hungary, really?????
 |
| Trains packed with refugees arriving in Germany. |
Hungary (with its 175km razor-wire fence along its border with Serbia) is part of Europe, which has values, and Europe does not respect those values by putting up fences that Europe would not even use for animals.
The attitude of a certain number of European countries, particularly in the east, who oppose a quota scheme for the distribution of refugees across EU member, is scandalous. Europe needs to stop being moved and start moving!
On Monday evening, around 20,000 people took part in a pro-refugee rally in Vienna, calling for the fair and respectful treatment of people fleeing from conflicts mainly in the Middle East and Africa. The protest on Monday came just days after 71 refugees were found dead in a truck on an Austrian highway. With many dressed in white, the protesters marched through the streets of the Austrian capital, holding candles and banners with slogans reading "Human Rights are Borderless" and "No Person is Illegal".
After hundreds of far-right protesters rioted last week in the small town of Heidenau, Germany in opposition to the temporary housing of asylum seekers there, Chancellor Merkel travelled to the eastern city of Heidenau last Wednesday to deliver what critics called a long-overdue public statement against a terrifying wave of attacks on asylum seekers.
Germany is currently witnessing a severe increase in right-wing and neo-Nazi attacks, including a series of arsons targeting refugee centres. Merkel condemned last weekend’s violence as: “Shameful and appalling.”
“We can have no tolerance toward those who are not willing to help,” Merkel told reporters. “The more that people make that clear, the stronger we will be.”
On Monday, the chancellor strongly condemned the riots in Heidenau at a joint news conference with French President François Hollande during his official visit to Berlin. “It is repulsive how far-right extremists and neo-Nazis are trying to herald dumb messages of hate,” Merkel said. “At the same time, it is shameful how citizens, even families with kids, are supporting these things by tagging along. Germany is a country which respects the dignity of every single individual. This is what it says in our constitution, and this applies to everyone staying in our country.”
France, Germany, and the UK have pressed for better processing of refugees arriving in southern Europe, as countries such as Greece, Italy, and Hungary have struggled to cope with the influx of refugees. Some 300,000 people have crossed this year alone. Hungary has received almost 150,000 refugees so far this year, 50,000 this month alone, mostly crossing from Serbia. Coast guards in Greece said on Monday that they had picked up nearly 2,500 people from the seas over the past two days. It is chartering ferries packed with refugees from the Island of Lesbos to the mainland. The vast majority of the refugees entering Hungary, which is also a member of Europe's passport-free Schengen zone, are bound for more prosperous EU countries such as Germany and Sweden. Last year, Sweden welcomed more asylum seekers — 81,000 — on a per capita basis than even Germany, while Britain resettled just 187 Syrians under a program to protect those considered the most vulnerable to persecution at home. Slovakia says it will accept 200 Syrians, but only if they're Christians.
"It will be the largest influx in the country's postwar history," Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister, said recently. "We can master this challenge. I don't think this will overwhelm Germany; we can handle this."
But Germany has also warned that it will not shoulder the burden alone, and called on its neighbours to step up to the plate. "Europe as a whole must move, and its states must share the responsibility for refugees seeking asylum," Merkel said Monday, warning that the lack of a unified response could endanger the cherished principle of free movement across EU borders.
So far, the migrant crisis has made a mockery of the EU, with as many policies toward migrants and refugees as there are countries within the 28-member EU.