German Chancellor Angela Merkel has blamed European nations for “unilaterally” shutting the Balkan route for migrants.<\/p>\n
She said this had put Greece in a “very difficult situation” and such decisions should be taken by the whole of the EU.<\/p>\n
Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and non-EU members Serbia and Macedonia have all acted to stem the migrant flow.<\/p>\n
The EU and Turkey, from where migrants reach Greece, have set out a plan to ease the crisis.<\/p>\n
Under the proposals, hammered out at a summit in Brussels on Monday but still to be finalised, all migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey would be sent back. For each Syrian returned, a Syrian in Turkey would be resettled in the EU.<\/p>\n
European Council President Donald Tusk has said the plan would spell the end of “irregular migration to Europe”.<\/p>\n
It is the worst such crisis in Europe since World War Two.<\/p>\n
The move to close the Balkan route began with Austria announcing it would limit the number of migrants crossing its border.<\/p>\n
Then, late on Tuesday, Slovenia said it would allow in only migrants who planned to seek asylum in the country, or those with clear humanitarian needs.<\/p>\n
Serbia and Croatia quickly announced similar border restrictions. Then on Wednesday, Macedonia, which had slowed the number of migrants crossing its border with Greece to a trickle, shut it completely.<\/p>\n
Some 14,000 migrants are now left stranded in a sprawling tent camp at the Idomeni crossing.<\/p>\n
A draft statement from the Brussels summit had declared the Balkan route “closed”. But Germany objected to the wording and it was changed.<\/p>\n
Mrs Merkel said at the time that declaring the closure was wrong.<\/p>\n
Speaking to MDR radio on Thursday, she repeated her position, saying that closing the route “does not resolve the problem” and would “not be sustainable or lasting”.<\/p>\n
She said: “Personally I think that Austria’s unilateral decision, and then those made subsequently by Balkan countries, will obviously bring us fewer refugees, but they put Greece in a very difficult situation.<\/p>\n
“If we do not manage to reach a deal with Turkey, then Greece cannot bear the weight for long.<\/p>\n
“That’s why I am seeking a real European solution, that is, a solution for all 28 [EU members],” she said.<\/p>\n
However, Austria on Thursday insisted the closure of the Balkan route was “permanent”. Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said only a “consistent signal” would deter people from seeking asylum in Europe.<\/p>\n
The EU-Turkey deal is far from certain to be adopted. Talks will continue ahead of an EU meeting on 17-18 March.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Turkey insisted the one-in, one-out deal for Syrian migrants would not apply to those already in Greece.<\/p>\n
The deal also raises legal questions. Thorbjorn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, told the BBC the proposal to send migrants back would contravene international law.<\/p>\n
More than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe in 2015.<\/p>\n
Germany itself had more than 476,000 asylum applications last year but officials there believe more than a million migrants, from all countries, are in its system for counting and distributing people before they make claims.
\n–
\nBy: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has blamed European nations for “unilaterally” shutting the Balkan route for migrants. She said this had put Greece in a “very difficult situation” and such decisions should be taken by the whole of the EU. Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and non-EU members Serbia and Macedonia have all acted to stem the migrant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":197882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=197881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/197882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=197881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=197881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=197881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}