Pressure grows on EU after Balkan nations close borders
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THE Balkan trail from Greece to northern Europe used by migrants was blocked yesterday after a string of nations shut their borders, hiking pressure on the European Union and Turkey to nail down a “game-changing” grand bargain.
Slovenia and Croatia, two of the countries along the well-trodden route, said on Tuesday that no migrants wishing to transit towards other countries would be allowed to enter. Serbia said it would follow suit.
EU member Slovenia said that from yesterday, the only exceptions were for people wishing to claim asylum in the country or for migrants “on humanitarian grounds and in accordance with the rules of the Schengen zone.”
Prime Minister Miro Cerar said the move meant that “the (Balkan) route for illegal migrations no longer exists.”
Croatia’s Interior Minister Vlaho Orepic called it a “new phase in resolving the migrant crisis.”
The measures follow Austria’s decision in February to cap the number of migrants passing through its territory, and Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz welcomed the news.
“This is putting into effect what is correct, and that is the end of the waving through (of migrants) last year and was the wrong approach,” he said on television.
“As Europe we must help Greece but we have to make sure that arriving in (the Greek island of) Lesbos doesn’t mean a ticket to Germany,” he said.
In Greece, however, the tightening of border restrictions in recent weeks sparked by Austria’s move has created a bottleneck at the border with Macedonia.
There was no official reaction from Athens to Slovenia and Croatia’s moves but a Greek government source said yesterday that it now considered borders through the Balkans as “de facto closed.”
More than a million people have crossed the Aegean Sea into Greece since the start of last year, many from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq and most aiming to reach Germany, Austria and Scandinavia.
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