EU interior ministers meet in Brussels
EU interior ministers will meet in Brussels today to discuss the crisis arising ou of western Balkan nations closing their borders for migrants. It has exacerbated a dire humanitarian situation on the Macedonian frontier.
The scheduled two-day meeting will tackle various areas including a proposed deal with Turkey and the restoration of the visa-free Schengen zone, along with plans for a European border and coastguard system.
The talks came after Slovenia and Croatia, two of the countries along the Balkan route used by hundreds of thousands of people in recent months, barred entry to transiting migrants from midnight Wednesday. Macedonia has not let anyone enter since Monday. Serbia also indicated that it would follow suit.
EU member Slovenia said it would make exceptions only for migrants wishing to claim asylum in the country or for those seeking entry on humanitarian grounds. As the 28-nation EU battles the worst migration crisis since World War Two, the fresh measures ramped up the pressure on the bloc to seal a proposed deal with Turkey to ease the chaos.
More than a million people have crossed the Aegean Sea into Greece since the start of 2015, many from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq and most aiming to reach wealthy Germany, Austria and Scandinavia. This has caused deep divisions among EU members about how to deal with the crisis. Authorities in Greece, the main entry point into the EU across the sea from Turkey, said Wednesday that nearly 36,000 migrants were now stranded there.
A controversial deal discussed with Turkey at an EU summit on Monday and due to be finalised on March 17-18 would see the country take back all illegal migrants landing in Greece. Ankara proposed an arrangement under which the EU would resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey in exchange for every Syrian that Turkey takes from Greece.
In return though, Turkey wants six billion euros in aid, visa-free access to Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone and a speeding up of Ankara’s efforts to join the EU. Turkey currently hosts 2.7 million refugees from the five-year-old Syrian civil war and is the main springboard for migrants heading to the EU.