EU ministers discuss migrant crisis

(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) European Union interior ministers are meeting Monday to discuss ways to spread responsibility for the seemingly endless flow of refugees into Europe. The meeting in Brussels comes one day ahead of Hungary's promise to prosecute people who try to evade the country's border police.

Parts of Europe especially eastern European countries blame Germany for the wave of migrants onto the continent. Germany however has become increasingly frustrated with some members in the EU who have shown a reluctance to share the burden of the newcomers.

Germany could take in as many as a million refugees this year German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel predicted in a letter Monday to members of his Social Democratic Party. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Germany is willing to absorb 800000 migrants.

Many of the refugees do not want to settle into just any country. Some are literally walking through several countries to reach Germany. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said people seeking protection cannot choose the country where they receive it.

Hungary

In Hungary meanwhile authorities are working on expanding and fortifying its border fence with Serbia topping it off with razor wire. Starting Tuesday Hungarian officials say they will prosecute any migrants they catch trying to avoid their border police.

Germany is temporarily reinstating passport controls along its border with EU partner Austria to limit the flow of migrants and refugees. German authorities have begun checking passports at the border.

"The aim of this measure is to stop the current influx to Germany and to return to an orderly process" Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Sunday.

Germany and Austria recently agreed to let in migrants in a bid to alleviate the number gathering in Hungary.

Slovakia is strengthening its border controls the Interior Ministry said Monday along its borders with Austria and Hungary. The ministry said it has placed an additional 220 officers on border duty. The ministry said it is coordinating its efforts with Austria Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Seeking better life

More than 430000 migrants seeking a better life including refugees from Syria and Iraq have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Europe this year. Nearly 3000 have died trying the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says.

That figure crept higher Sunday when at least 28 people drowned off Greece after their boat capsized.

Scores more were rescued near the island of Farmakonisi in the southeastern Aegean Sea.

Austrian police say they rescued 42 people believed to be migrants stowed in a refrigerated flower truck on a highway near the German border on Sunday. Two Iraqis suspected as smugglers were arrested police said.

Authorities are on high alert after the decomposing remains of 71 people believed to be migrants were found on an eastern Austrian highway last month.

Cameron meets refugees

In a previously unannounced move British Prime Minister David Cameron met Monday in Lebanon with some of the Syrian refugees who will re-settle in Britain. Britain is taking in up to 20000 refugees over the next five years. Cameron also met with his Lebanese counterpart Tammam Salam.

On Friday at a meeting in Prague the foreign ministers of Hungary the Czech Republic Poland and Slovakia refused entreaties by their counterparts from wealthier Germany and Luxembourg to accept mandatory migrant quotas despite the endorsement by the United Nations of a plan that would allow for the distribution of 160000 migrants among the 28 EU member nations.

Romania's interior minister on Sunday said his country will not meet the European Union request to take an additional 4650 people more than the 1785 asylum seekers it initially agreed to.

Interior Minister Gabriel Oprea says he has a "very clear mandate" from the president and prime minister to refuse the request. He spoke Sunday ahead of an interior ministers' meeting Monday in Brussels on Europe's migration crisis.