Austria warns EU survival at stake in migrant crisis

Austria warned Wednesday that the EU's future was at stake as it pressed Balkan states, in the absence of an effective common response by the bloc, to reduce the influx of migrants despite fears of a humanitarian crisis.

Further undermining the European Union's hopes to get a grip on the situation, Hungary meanwhile announced a referendum on Brussels' troubled scheme to share out migrants among the 28-nation group via mandatory quotas.

"We have to reduce the influx now. This is a question of survival for the EU," Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said after talks in Vienna with countries on the well-trodden west Balkans route north from Greece.

Greece, where thousands of Afghans have been held up at the border with FYROM [***], angrily protested at being excluded from the ministerial meeting, underscoring the deep rifts within the EU.

A joint statement from the participants said that after hundreds of thousands of people trekked through the Balkans last year, many ending up in Germany, Sweden and also Austria, the inflow must be "massively reduced".

The talks come after figures showed over 110,000 people arriving in Greece and Italy so far this year alone -- 413 perishing in the attempt -- following more than one million arrivals in 2015.

Amnesty International hit out Wednesday at Europe's "shameful" response, saying most EU countries had "simply decided that the protection of their borders is more important than the protection of the rights of refugees"...
 AFP - ahram.org.eg
24/2/16
***[After the necessary correction with the name "FYROM"]

***[GREECE recognized this country with the name "FYROM"]
***[UN  resolution A/RES/47/225 of 8 April 1993]
***El Etos uses the recognized name FYROM.
By using El Etos, you agree to the U.N. Charter in this issue.
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