Thursday, September 10, 2015

Macedonia-Skopje plans fence and troops on Greek border to stop migrants


(Telegraph.co.uk) Macedonia is considering building a Hungarian-style border fence to stem a rising influx of migrants from the south, foreign minister Nikola Poposki was quoted as saying on Thursday.

In an interview with Hungarian business weekly Figyelo, he said Macedonia will probably also need "some kind of a physical defence" though this would not be a long-term solution.

"But if we take seriously what Europe is asking us to do, we will need that, too. Either soldiers or a fence or a combination of the two," said Poposki.

West European states like France and Germany have criticised Hungary's ongoing construction of a 108-mile long, 11.5-foot-high fence along its border with Serbia to channel migrants to crossings where they can be registered.

Over 160,000 migrants have entered Hungary from the south this year, transiting Greece, Macedonia and Serbia in that order from war-torn or impoverished countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Almost all seek to reach wealthier western and northern European Union states like Germany and Sweden.

A single-day record of 7,000 Syrian refugees crossed on Monday into Macedonia, a small and relatively poor former Yugoslav republic.

German minister of state for Europe Michael Roth told the same newspaper that Germany expected countries to register migrants who entered the EU over their borders, but that fences were not the right approach.

"We must build a Europe where we protect freedom and guarantee security, but where there is no place for either fences or walls," Roth said.

Also on Thursday, Romania's president says there is "no way" his country will accept the extra number of migrants the European Commission has proposed.

Romania had initially agreed to accept 1,785 migrants, but under new plans unveiled by Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday would be obliged to take a further 4,646.

President Klaus Iohannis said Romania will send its interior minister to a special meeting Monday in Brussels to discuss the issue.

"I had a discussion with him today and his mandate is to declare that there is no way Romania will agree to the obligatory quotas."

Mr Iohannis said the EU is seeking to distribute migrants in a bureaucratic way without consulting member states.

The European Parliament on Thursday backed Mr Juncker's plan to spread out 160,000 refugees in Hungary, Greece and Italy across the other member states.

The support of the legislature had been expected and has little impact compared with the power of the member states, which also need to back the plan.

EU ministers will hold an extraordinary meeting on the issue next Monday and several eastern EU nations have already voiced their opposition to a mandatory spreading of refugees to their countries.

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