Austria And Other Balkan Nations Impose Stricter Border Policies For Migrants
European Union's seemingly indecisive performance to act on the ongoing refugee crisis is creating a political impetus for countries to act unilaterally or in coordination with some member-countries within the union to implement stringent border controls and stricter requirements for asylum applications.
Recently, Austria and a number of Balkan countries have begun a series of policing efforts to curb the overwhelming influx of refugees from war-torn countries and migrants elsewhere. These countries added that in the future, shutting their doors completely to refugees would be an imminent possibility if EU fails to act swiftly.
"We need measures that lead to a ... a domino effect. We must reduce the flow of migrants now...Because the refugee question can become a question of survival for the European Union," remarked Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner as quoted by Yahoo News.
So on February 24, Austria was joined by Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia in signing a 19-point agreement on curbing the flow of migrant at a meeting in Vienna.
"'It is not possible to process unlimited numbers of migrants and applicants for asylum' and limits must be established to protect 'internal security' and 'social cohesion'... The migration flow along the Western Balkans route needs to be substantially reduced-including refusing entry to 'migrants not in need of international protection' and persons 'without travel documents, with forged or falsified documents, or migrants making wrongful statements about their nationality or identity'," the agreement stated with some parts quoted by Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty.
But the agreement has been criticized by Greek PM Alexis Tsipras who warned that Greece 'will not assent to agreements' if its EU partners will not share the burden. Also, he stated that EU countries 'not only erect fences on their borders but at the same time do not accept to take in a single refugee' according to a report by Belfast Telegraph.
