Despite the numerical insignificance, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary all closed their borders, which is ironical as these are the countries benefiting most from the open borders within the EU. Germany and France want migrants shared out more evenly across the EU.
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The European Union prides itself on cementing peace among countries that until World War Two fought bloody battles and fostering prosperity by removing internal barriers among its member states through the so-called Schenghen agreements.
Thousands of asylum seekers continued to stream into Croatia and Austria, which have become key way stations en route to most migrants’ preferred destinations of Germany and Scandinavia.
The arrival of about 500,000 people this year, mostly through Greece and Italy, has laid bare fundamental divisions between former Communist countries and partners further West over how to manage migration.
A Syrian asylum seeker living in a German camp for refugees has said he fought and killed for Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).
A total of 7,470 people making their first application and their dependants sought refuge in this country – an increase of 2% on the previous three months, according to statistics from the EU’s data agency. If it grants them asylum, it is responsible for looking after them. “Had we not, the same amount would have come, only later” he said.
Afghans are known for asylum seeking or for living illegally wherever there is possibility.
Hungary refused to be part of the scheme including availing of the initial plan to take 54,000 of the refugees they were looking after.
Any additional refugees must be saved from the risk of drowning in the Mediterranean while they travel to Europe, said the minister.
Britain is preparing to welcome the first group of Syrian refugees in the coming days under the Government’s expanded resettlement programme to take in up to 20,000 Syrian refugees over the next five years. “We will need patience and staying power”, she said. We get a vote on how to manage asylum seekers when they arrive in the EU.
Some 14,900, or seven percent, of asylum seekers across the European Union applied for refugee status in Italy in the second quarter of 2015, figures released by Eurostat on Friday showed.
Nothing on the agenda of the meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday will immediately help countries in Eastern Europe and the Balkans to manage their borders now.
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The same meeting also provisionally agreed to provide more money to help refugees in frontline states such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan – the idea being that fewer will then come to the EU.
