The EU yesterday pledged to help set up 100,000 places in reception centers along the refugee route through the Balkans to defuse rising tensions on its eastern frontier over how to deal with the crisis.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker made the announcement after emergency talks with the heads of 10 EU nations, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, plus the leaders of non-EU nations Albania, Serbia and Macedonia.
The meeting comes after Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia on Saturday warned they could close their borders to stop them becoming a buffer zone for the tens of thousands of people streaming into Europe every day.
About 3,000 refugees have died making the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing, and with winter fast approaching, the fear is that more could face the same fate on the land route through the Balkans.
The reception places, to be provided with the help of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would help provide shelter and speed up the registration of migrants, Juncker said.
About 50,000 places are to be created across Balkan nations, such as Macedonia and Serbia, while the other half are to be in Greece. That includes 30,000 to be made available this year, and another 20,000 are to be set up with families or in rental housing subsidized by the UNHCR.
By trying to separate genuine refugees from economic migrants, the centers would also help speed the planned relocation of 160,000 asylum seekers from overstretched Greece and Italy throughout the 28-nation EU.
Fears are rising that the crisis is threatening the Schengen system of borderless travel, one of the bedrock achievements of the EU since it was founded in the chaos following World War II.
Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said the EU itself is at stake when he arrived for the talks.
“If we do not deliver some immediate and concrete actions on the ground in the next few days and weeks, I believe the EU and Europe as a whole will start falling apart,” he said.
Juncker issued a statement with 17 proposals, including an undertaking that no nation would let migrants through to an adjoining state without first getting their neighbor’s agreement.
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