Thousands of refugees pour into Austria as European crisis intensifies

Thousands of refugees pour into Austria as European crisis intensifies

Around 13,000 people entered Austria on Saturday, according to the Red Cross, after being forced away from to crosCroatia, Hungary and Slovenia

Agence France-Presse / Guardian

Sunday 20 September 2015 06.31 BST http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/20/thousands-of-refugees-pour-into-austria-as-european-crisis-intensifies

Thousands of refugees have streamed into Austria after being shunted through Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia as Europe’s divided nations stepped up efforts to push the migrants into neighbouring countries.

The continent’s biggest migratory flow since 1945 has opened a deep rift between western and eastern members of the European Union over how to distribute the refugees fairly, and raised questions over the fate of the Schengen agreement allowing borderless travel within the 28-nation bloc.

Several countries have imposed border controls, as recent figures have shown nearly half a million people have braved perilous trips across the Mediterranean to reach Europe so far this year, while the EU has received almost a quarter of a million asylum requests in the three months to June.

In Austria, up to 13,000 people entered the country over the course of Saturday alone, the head of the Austrian Red Cross told the APA news agency. The figure was not immediately confirmed by local police, who had said earlier they were readying for an influx of around 10,000 refugees and migrants.

Austrian police said Hungary had shipped at least 6,700 people to the border, with more expected in the Burgenland border region by the end of Saturday.

Hungary’s rightwing government has faced international criticism over violent clashes with migrants and a hastily-erected fence along its frontier with Serbia, but in a shift late Friday, Hungarian authorities began transporting thousands of migrants straight to the border with Austria, an apparent bid to move them through and out of their territory as quickly as possible.

There was no let-up in the stream of people making the gruelling journey across the Balkans into western Europe, with Croatia saying 20,700 had entered the country since Wednesday.

Zagreb, which initially said it would allow migrants to pass through freely, announced it was swamped on Friday and began transporting hundreds to the Hungarian border by bus and train – sparking a furious reaction from Budapest.

Despite the row, Croatian and Hungarian authorities appeared to be coordinating on the ground. An AFP journalist along the frontier between the two countries saw migrants board Croatian buses that took them to the border, before disembarking and crossing on foot then boarding Hungarian buses that quickly departed.

Migrants were also being taken to Slovenia, where 1,500 had arrived since Friday, according to the interior ministry.

Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia are all EU members, but only the latter two belong to Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone.

In a new hurdle aimed at stemming the influx, Hungary said it had completed a 41-kilometre (25-mile) barbed-wire barrier along part of its frontier with Croatia.

The remaining 330km of the border runs roughly along the Drava river, which is difficult to cross.

The new barrier adds to a barbed-wire fence that Hungary completed along its frontier with Serbia this week, backed with laws threatening illegal migrants with jail, which forced the migrant flow towards Croatia.

On the Croatia-Slovenia frontier, aid tents have sprung up with local and foreign volunteers giving out food, water and clothes.

“It’s generous of them,” said Khaddam Ghaiath, a Syrian former customs official who is on the road with his 70-year-old mother.

“It must be a shock for them to see thousands of people arriving like this. It is not a normal situation.”

Tensions boiled over at the Croatian border town of Harmica overnight, however, with Slovenian riot police using pepper spray against several hundred migrants, some with children, who had sought to push through their cordon into Slovenia, according to an AFP photographer.

The clash happened shortly after Slovenian prime minister Miro Cerar said the small country might consider creating “corridors” for refugees wanting to reach northern Europe if they continue arriving in large numbers.

Elsewhere, Italy’s coastguard on Saturday said it had picked up more than 4,500 people off the Libyan coast, as calm seas sparked a flurry of attempts to cross the Mediterranean.

Germany alone expects up to a million asylum seekers this year, but the country’s interior minister Thomas de Maiziere said the EU should in future take a finite number of migrants, while sending the rest back to a safe country in their home regions.

EU interior ministers are to meet again on Tuesday, followed by an emergency summit on Wednesday.

European leaders also called for more action to tackle the problem within Turkey and the Middle East.

EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn said the bloc was earmarking aid of “up to one billion euros” to encourage Syrian refugees in Turkey to stay there, while Austria and Germany issued a joint call for UN countries to contribute an extra five billion euros to help refugees living in camps in Lebanon and Jordan.

Of the more than four million Syrians who have fled their country, nearly half have sought shelter in Turkey, while more than a million are now living in Lebanon and at least 600,000 in Jordan.