Page 9 - ARUBA TODAY
P. 9
WORLD NEWS 9
Tuesday 15 September 2015
Razor-lined boxcar marks Hungary’s new border for migrants
MIKE CORDER lack of commitment from Hungarian police officers guard the area as a rail wagon prepared with barbwire arrives to seal
SHAWN POGATCHNIK EU partners to share the
Associated Press load. the border fence between Serbia and Hungary in Roszke, southern Hungary, Monday, Sept.
ROSZKE, Hungary (AP) — “If we don’t find a solution,
Hungary deployed a box- then this chaos will be the 14, 2015. Hungary are set to introduce much harsher border controls at midnight — laws that
car bristling with razor wire to result,” said Foreign Minis-
close a key border crossing ter Jean Asselborn of Lux- would send smugglers to prison and deport migrants who cut under Hungary’s new razor-wire
and warned of a new era of embourg, which holds the
swift deportations Monday EU presidency. Germany’s border fence. The country’s leader was emphatically clear that they were designed to keep the
as governments across Eu- decision to deploy police
rope debated how to share on borders and trains could migrants out. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
the burden of housing hun- trigger “a domino effect
dreds of thousands seeking and then we can forget
refuge — and whether the Schengen,” he said, refer-
continent’s hard-won pol- ring to the 1985 agreement
icy of passport-free travel that gradually removed
could survive the unrelent- passport checks on most
ing flow of humanity. European borders.
In Brussels, ministers from Asselborn suggested that
the 28-nation bloc agreed intolerance of foreigners lay
to share responsibility for behind some countries’ re-
40,000 people seeking ref- fusal to commit.
uge in overwhelmed Italy “Even a little country like
and Greece and spoke Luxembourg is able to ac-
hopefully of reaching even- cept a few hundred people
tual agreement — possibly who are not of Christian reli-
next month, or possibly by gion, who have another skin
the end of the year — on color, and this should also
which nations would take work in big countries like Po-
120,000 more. land or the Czech Republic
But their slow deliberations or Slovakia,” Asselborn said,
appeared disconnected listing some of the countries
from the rapidly shifting situ- that have rejected Germa-
ation on the most besieged ny’s call for all EU members
borders of Europe, where to accept minimum quotas
Austria, Slovakia and even for accepting people as
the Netherlands joined Ger- refugees.
many in reintroducing bor- “This fear has to be over-
der controls for the first time come. For the moment, in
in a generation in a bid to certain countries, we’re not
record the arrivals of thou- there yet.”
sands daily from the Middle Hungary, a key link in the
East, Asia and Africa. migrant chain, emphasized
The checks, involving po- its determination to house
lice on trains and on bor- as few asylum seekers as
der roads, snarled traffic possible. Prime Minister Vik-
and slowed the speed and tor Orban warned that peo-
volume of migrants reach- ple walking into his country
ing Germany, which had from non-EU member Serbia
received more than 60,000 faced a new regime of swift
newcomers since throwing rejection and deportation,
opens its borders Sept. 5 to given that Serbia today is a
people trying to reach the safe place to live.
EU heavyweight via Hunga- New laws effective Tuesday
ry, the Balkans and Greece. also made it a criminal of-
Since Sunday those borders fense, punishable by prison
have grown tighter again, or deportation, to damage
reflecting German unease Hungary’s newly erected
at the sheer volume and border defenses.q
