EU Ministers Begin Talks on How to Contain Migrant Flow

Austria – one of the main transit countries for refugees trying to reach Germany – and other Schengen members have reintroduced temporary internal border controls to cope with the refugee flows, raising fears the zone could collapse.

The informal meeting comes days after EU President Donald Tusk warned that Europe’s passport-free travel area, known as Schengen, could break apart if the migrant strategy is not sorted out within two months.

This would mean many more refugees staying in countries like Greece – where more than 40,000 people have already arrived by sea from Turkey this month, despite a deal with its government to limit the numbers.

“The problem isn’t national: it’s European, it’s global”, Cazeneuve said. So far, the European Union nations and institutions have been bickering over how to share the cost.

“We want to see the hotspots that can be operational in the islands, where they have been promised, where incoming refugees can be registered, where illegal migrants can be returned, where we will be having reception capacities, which- as you know- we promise to finance through a rental scheme”. The only way to extend them for up to two years is if the European Commission, the bloc’s executive, finds that Greece is failing to protect the bloc’s outer border. Nikos Toskas, a deputy interior minister, said it was hard to stop some refugee-laden boats “except via sinking or shooting”.

It will send “a message that investment in irregular migration is pointless”, said Mr Cerar in a letter. Signed previous year, the deal involves Brussels paying Ankara three billion euros ($3.2 billion) in aid for Syrian refugees and speeding up its European Union membership process, in return for Turkey tackling people smugglers and improving conditions for refugees.

Extended controls at borders in northern and western Europe would come as the 28-nation bloc fails to get to grips with the more than 1 million migrants who have flooded in over the past year.

Mr Juncker’s spokesman said that states including Greece had agreed before Christmas “that a policy of simply waving people through from one country to the next was not acceptable”.

He said “the Greeks now need to bear the consequences” of being unable to stop the migrant flows, adding that the Greek “state structure is just too weak to do it themselves – apparently”.

Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, who has already threatened to exclude Greece from the Schengen zone, repeated her threats on Monday.

In practice, that would allow countries like Germany, which has European Union authorization to halt traffic at some border crossings until May, to continue those checks for 18 more months.

“The unprecedented influx of asylum seekers, which compelled member states to take these measures nationally, has not decreased yet”, said Klaas Dijkhoff, the Dutch justice minister, who chaired the meeting.

“So member states invited the [European] Commission to prepare the legal and practical basis for the continuance of temporary border measures through Article 26 of the Schengen border code”, he concluded.

He said: “We should be focusing on the positive opportunity for Britain”.

“We are running out of time”, said EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos.

Mr Kenny said that there were still “complications” with the proposals but insisted that they are “solvable”.

A county councillor in Kent said vulnerable British children in care have had to move away from their home area because of a sharp rise in young asylum seekers arriving from Calais.

European governments swapped accusations over the handling of the refugee crisis on Monday, with Greece denouncing “lies” from across Europe over its troubles in coping with the unrelenting inflow.