VIENNA (AP) — The Latest on the influx of migrants into Europe all times local):
10:40 a.m.
Migrants stranded in Greece have begun reappearing in squares in central Athens after Balkan countries imposed tougher transit restrictions at the weekend in response to similar action taken by Austria.
The interior ministry said about 12,000 people have been stranded in Greece since neighbor Macedonia began turning Afghan immigrants away at the border and slowing the number of crossings for others heading to central and northern Europe. The government is planning to set up several temporary shelters to try and deal with the crisis.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
Filippo Grandi, is in Athens to meet government officials Wednesday, including Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras.
10:35 a.m.
The German government says 125 Afghans who had their asylum applications rejected have voluntarily returned to their homeland.
The Interior Ministry said a plane carrying the migrants landed in Kabul Wednesday. The return was organized by the International Organization for Migration.
Interior Minister
Thomas de Maiziere said in a statement the migrants’ return was important for the reconstruction of Afghanistan. The government hopes the return will dissuade more Afghans from traveling to Germany but hasn’t said when it might start deporting people to Afghanistan.
Afghans were the second-biggest group among the more than one million asylum seekers who came to Germany in 2015, with more than 150,000 arriving. Some 309 Afghans returned last year to their homeland after their asylum pleas had been rejected.
10:30 a.m.
The head of the European Parliament says it’s “absolutely normal” for Belgium to reinforce its border with France to avoid a flood of people crossing over if a migrant camp near Calais gets evacuated.
Martin Schulz says in an interview with French radio Europe 1 that the move, announced Tuesday by Belgian interior minister
Jan Jambon, was carried out according to the rules of the Schengen borderless zone, which he said permits states to temporarily restore border controls.
Jambon said up to 290 police a day will be used to make sure no camps are set up on the Belgian side of the border.
10:15 a.m.
Amnesty International says the European Union is too focused on keeping migrants out and failing to take humanitarian measures that could have prevented thousands dying at sea.
More than 110,000 people fleeing conflict or poverty have entered the EU so far this year, and over 400 have died.
Amnesty said in its 2015-2016 annual report released Wednesday that “the EU’s failing refugee strategy remains focused on keeping people out, rather than providing the safe passage to Europe that could save thousands of lives.”
The human rights group said EU countries “for the most part vacillated or actively obstructed potential solutions” to sharing refugees. It says little effort was made to find more legal ways for migrants to avoid dangerous sea journeys and enter Europe safely.
10 a.m.
Austria’s foreign minister is defending his country’s decision not to invite Greece to a conference of West Balkan nations focused on managing the migrant crisis.
Sebastian Kurz says that Greece has “clearly expressed no interest in reducing the (migrant) influx and in contrast wants to continue waving them through” to Macedonia, from where they make their way northward. Austria has imposed limits on the number of refugees allowed to enter.
The statement by Kurz comes ahead of a meeting Wednesday of Austrian and West Balkan government ministers in Vienna aiming at finding common solutions to crimping the refugee flow.
Greece is not invited. Austria’s Interior Ministry says the conference is set up in a “regular format” that does not include Athens.
Category: International
