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WORLD NEWSThursday 25 February 2016
Austria, Balkan nations, want full stop to migrant influx
GEORGE JAHN their borders but at the Slovenia, Croatia and Bul-
Associated Press same time do not accept
VIENNA (AP) — Over- to take in a single refugee.” garia, as well as Albania,
whelmed by a wave of Austria has recently
refugees and what they capped the number of Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedo-
call indecision in the Euro- asylum-seekers it will ac-
pean Union, Austria and cept daily at its borders to nia, Montenegro and Ser-
its southern neighbors 80, and limited the number
along the Balkan migrant of refugees it will let pass bia issued a declaration
route agreed to tighter through the country. That
border controls at a meet- has led to more border re- that struck the same tone.
ing Wednesday — and strictions being introduced
warned that sooner or later further south, hurting coun- It cited “limited resources
they will have to shut their tries along the route, in-
doors entirely. cluding Greece. and reception capacities,
Greece, the first point of Playing off warnings that
landing for most of the the restrictions will lead to potential consequences
migrants arriving by boat disastrous accumulations
from Turkey, was not invit- of refugees on borders for internal security and
ed to the meeting and re- along the route, Austrian
sponded angrily by threat- Interior Minister Johanna social cohesion as well as
ening to block decisions Mikl-Leitner called for “a
at a forthcoming EU mi- chain reaction of reason.” challenges with regard to
gration summit if sharing “We need measures that
of the refugee burden is lead to a ... a domino ef- integration.”
not made obligatory for fect. We must reduce the
member states. The EU has flow of migrants now,” she “It is not possible to process
set up a scheme to share said. “Because the refu-
160,000 migrants arriving gee question can become unlimited numbers of mi-
in Greece and Italy. Even a question of survival for
that would be only a frac- the European Union.” grants and applicants for
tion of the total numbers, At the meeting in Vi-
but so far, barely 600 peo- enna Wednesday, inte- asylum,” it said, suggesting
ple have been relocated, rior and foreign ministers
and only some EU partners Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz informs the press during from EU members Austria, that a full stop in the future
the western Balkans conference in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday,
Feb. 24, 2016. Austria wants not only to crimp the influx of mi- was inevitable.
grants pouring into Europe but to fully stop it, its interior minister
declared Wednesday as she convened a meeting of ministers Noting that the right to
from Western Balkan nations. Greece — which was not invited
— blasted the gathering as “hostile.” asylum does not include
(AP Photo/Ronald Zak) choosing “a country of
preference,” Wednes-
day’s declaration called
for common standards of
have offered places for refugees. A senior govern- registration and entry cri-
them - fewer than 5,000
spots in all. Prime Minister ment official, who spoke teria for those with realistic
Alexis Tsipras said that from
now on Greece “will not as- on customary condition of chances for asylum.
sent to agreements” unless
all its partners in the EU are anonymity, clarified that “The migration flow along
forced to participate pro-
portionately in the reloca- Tsipras was specifically re- the Western Balkans route
tion and resettlement of
ferring to a March 7 summit needs to be substan-
on immigration. tially reduced,” said the
Tsipras lashed out 19-point document. It de-
at EU member states that clared that all nations at
“not only erect fences on the conference will refuse
entry to all “without travel
Libya: French special forces on ground fighting IS documents, with forged
or falsified documents or
migrants making wrongful
RAMI MUSA told The Associated Press. unit is working with Britain ing a policy against com- statements about their na-
Associated Press They said that French forc- and the U.S. units to collect menting on special forces’
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — es work with Libyan troops information on the loca- activities. The Libyan of- tionality or identity.”
French special forces have to pinpoint IS militant loca- tion of IS militants and their ficials said the presence
been helping Libyan troops tions, plan operations and numbers. Similar teams are of Western forces was not It urged all EU nations that
fight Islamic State militants carry them out. They had also operating out of an air welcomed by ultracon-
in the eastern Libyan city of also been training Libyan base in the city of Misrata, servative Salafist factions, have signed on to the
Benghazi for two months, forces, they added. located to the east of the who are allied with Libya’s
two Libyan military officials According to the officials, IS stronghold of Sirte, the eastern army and per- Schengen agreement on
said Wednesday. the French forces were set- officials said. The Libyan ceive the foreign interven-
The French combat squad, ting up an operations room officials spoke on condi- tion as an “occupation.” open borders to refuse en-
consisting of 15 special in Banina air base in Beng- tion of anonymity because Washington is counting on
forces, carried out four mili- hazi alongside British and they were not authorized the UK, France and Italy to try both to those who do
tary operations against IS U.S. teams. They said that in to speak to the press. The join the international coali-
and other militant groups addition to the special forc- French defense ministry tion against IS extremists not satisfy the entry condi-
in Benghazi, the officials es, a French intelligence declined to comment, cit- gaining ground in Libya.q
tions and to those who do
but do not use the oppor-
tunity to apply for asylum.
Athens objects to what
it sees as Austrian-led at-
tempts to leave it to han-
dle the burden of those ar-
riving alone. q
