Hungary is on the frontline of Europe's refugee crisis, with almost 200,000 people travelling up from Greece through the western Balkans and entering the country this year, most of them seeking to travel on to Germany.
On Monday, Hungary closed the main crossing with Serbia and more states imposed border checks in the face of the continent's ongoing refugee crisis.
Hungary will also reject asylum seekers entering from Serbia who have not previously sought asylum in its southern neighbour, a government spokesperson said.
"Certainly, as that is the international legal rule, therefore it must be done that way," Zoltan Kovacs said at Hungary's southern border with Serbia when asked if such refugees would be turned back.
With Europe's 20-year-old Schengen passport-free zone feeling the pressure, Austria and Slovakia said on Monday they would follow economic powerhouse Germany's lead in reinstating border controls to deal with the flow of people.
Poland said it was considering similar steps while the Netherlands said it would have "more patrols" on its frontiers.
Long traffic jams built up on the Germany-Austria border and refugees were left stranded on non-EU Serbia's side of the frontier with Hungary in the latest chaotic scenes from the biggest such crisis since the second world war.
No agreement reached
Amid opposition from eastern states, EU ministers failed to reach agreement on a plan to share out 120,000 refugees and ease the burden on frontline states from the tide of people fleeing war zones like Syria and Afghanistan.
"We did not have the agreement we wanted," Dimitris Avramopoulos, EU migration commissioner, said after Monday's emergency meeting in Brussels, adding that they hoped to reach a deal in October.
More than 430,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Europe so far this year, 2,748 dying, and more coming every day.
It is not just Hungary which is reeling from the refugee flow through Europe.
Other countries are now feeling the strain too, and Germany shocked its EU partners on Sunday when it admitted that it had to reinstate border controls eliminated under Schengen in the late 1990s to cope with the influx.
Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said there were "many signs that Germany this year will take in not 800,000 refugees, as forecast by the interior ministry, but one million".........http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/09/hungary-enforces-tough-immigration-law-150915003743802.html
15/9/15
-----------
Related:
-
GR
FR
DE
ES
IT
RU
EU
La Hongrie ferme complètement sa frontière avec la Serbie, quel est le plan d'Orbán? ...
ReplyDeleteBudapest a fermé lundi le principal point de sa frontière avec la Serbie. A Röszke, le principal point de transit des migrants à la frontière serbe, des policiers hongrois en uniforme bleu empêchaient leur passage, pendant que d'autres agents tendaient des fils de fer en travers de la voie.
Des migrants arrivant de Serbie éclataient en pleurs en voyant que le passage n'était plus libre. Et dès mardi, la Hongrie devait mettre en oeuvre une nouvelle législation destinée à leur rendre sa frontière infranchissable.
De plus on a appris dans la soirée que la Hongrie avait fermé une partie de son espace aérien sur une vingtaine de kilomètres le long de la frontière serbe et jusqu'à une altitude de 1350 mètres. Cela concerne les vols d'hélicoptères, de petits avions et de planeurs mais pas le trafic international. La mesure vise sans doute moins d'éventuelles tentatives de passage de migrants par la voie des airs que la presse.
Risque de déchirement de l'Union
Au même moment, à Bruxelles, le ministre luxembourgeois des Affaires étrangères Jean Asselborn mettait en garde les dirigeants européens. "Si nous ne nous ressaisissons pas ensemble aujourd'hui, l'Europe sera totalement déchirée", a averti Jean Asselborn, qui présidait un conseil extraordinaire des ministres de l'Intérieur de l'UE......rtbf.be
Tough Hungarian laws take effect...
ReplyDeleteHungary has brought in tough new laws to stop the entry of illegal migrants.
Police can now detain anyone who tries to breach a razor-wire fence built on the border with Serbia.
The EU is facing a huge influx of migrants, many fleeing conflict and poverty in countries including Syria and trying to reach Western Europe.
A boat carrying migrants from Turkey to Greece sank on Tuesday, leaving 22 people including four children dead, Turkish media reported.
The EU has agreed to relocate 40,000 migrants from Greece and Italy to other EU states, starting on Tuesday. But it has yet to agree on mandatory quotas for a further 120,000 asylum seekers.
The new Hungarian laws came into effect at midnight (22:00 GMT Monday).
Police sealed a railway crossing point that had been used by tens of thousands of migrants, and many slept out in the open on the Serbian side of the border......BBC