Summary
We’re going to pause the live blog for now but here’s a roundup of the latest developments:
- EU governments are expected to back radical new plans for the detention of “irregular migrants”, the creation of large new refugee camps in Italy and Greece and longer-term aims for the funding and building of refugee camps outside the EU to try to stop people coming to Europe. A crunch meeting of EU interior ministers in Brusselswas also expected to water down demands for obligatory sharing of refugees across at least 22 countries.
- Hungary’s anti-immigraton prime minister, Viktor Orban, has vowed to push ahead with a controversial border crackdown due to come into force at midnight. The UN claims that his government is transporting migrants from the Serbian border to the Austrian frontier ahead of the change.
- David Cameron has traveled to Lebanon to defend Britain’s much-criticised response to the crisis. He insisted that hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Syrian civil war have been discouraged from “risking their lives” to travel to Europe by British aid totalling £1bn.
- More central European countries have followed Germany’s lead by reintroducing border controls. Austria dispatched troops to its frontiers with Hungary while Slovakia reintroduced controls at its borders with Austria and Hungary.
- The UN’s refugee agency has warned that tens of thousands of refugees face roaming Europe in “legal limbo” after the reintroduction of border controls. It said: “UNHCR is concerned that the combination of different, individual measures might create a situation where large numbers of refugees seeking in Europe the protection they are entitled to receive in line with international law, will find themselves moving around in legal limbo.”
- Germany’s vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has predicted that the number of refugees his country will accept this year will rise to one million. He also said he hoped that new border controls would only be temporary.
- The UN’s human rights chief has praised the British public response to the refugee crisis in the face of “long-standing xenophobia” from the press and some politicians. Zeid Raad al-Hussein also called for “expanded channels of regular migration and resettlement” in Europe.
- The home secretary, Theresa May, is leading Britain’s resistance to EU-wide refugee quota at an emergency meeting of interior ministers in Brussels. Arriving at today she said: “What we need to do urgently is set up registration centres so that people are properly fingerprinted and registered when they arrive in Europe.”
Updated
Hungary’s anti-immigraton prime minister, Viktor Orban, has vowed to push ahead with a controversial border crackdown due to come into force at midnight, amid UN claims that his government is transporting migrants from the Serbian border to the Austrian frontier ahead of the change.
Under the plans Hungary will deport to Serbia migrants who do not use police-supervised border checkpoints to register with authorities.
Speaking to border police, Orban said: “Illegal border crossings will no longer be misdemeanors but felonies punishable with prison terms or bans.”
But Orban advised police to use minimum force and treat the newcomers as fellow human beings.
The UNHCR said Hungary is using special trains to transport thousands of migrants from Roszke near the Serbian border to the Austrian frontier without registration.
The move suggested a record surge in arrivals in Hungary has prompted the authorities to abandon efforts to have all those entering European Union territory registered on the spot, according to Reuters.
“The situation is that after crossing the border these people have arrived at the collection point in Roszke, where there is no official procedure, people are just being collected,” UNHCR spokesman Erno Simon said.
“Earlier these people were being taken to the registration points ... this is not happening now, but rather, buses are taking people from the collection point to the Roszke train station according to our information,” he told Reuters.
Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said those arriving were still registered, although at other locations in Hungary to ease pressure on authorities in the south.
“Hungary is fulfilling all its international and European obligations, including registration,” Kovacs said:
“At the same time we are trying to ease the pressure on Roszke, therefore the protocol is being followed at those locations (i.e. at Szentgotthard) where we provide shelter for migrants,” he said.
Simon said since 10am on Sunday, special trains have been leaving Roszke train station one after the other without stopping en route to the Austrian border. On Sunday alone more than 2,000 people left Roszke on three trains, he said.
“That these people are not being taken to registration points is confirmed by our information, given that these registration points are empty,” he said.
Simon said the UNHCR learned from volunteers at the Austrian border that after a four-hour journey the trains arrived there. A Reuters reporter on the Serbian border saw police putting people on buses.
At Roszke railway station police were putting hundreds of migrants on a special train which had at least 15 carriages, a Reuters reporter said. A policeman told Reuters the trains were bound for Hegyeshalom at the border with Austria.
at Roszke.
Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/Demotix/Corbis
The reintroduction of border controls by some EU member states has led to fears for the future of the free borders Schengen system and the coining of a new Euro mouthful: “Schexit”.
After #Grexit and #Brexit, a diplomat coins #Schexit
— Bruno Waterfield (@BrunoBrussels) September 14, 2015
Ian Traynor has more on the EU’s detention plans.
Plus, further confirmation from Ireland’s justice minister, Frances Fitzgerald, that Juncker’s hope for binding quotas is off the agenda.
Arriving at the meeting of interior ministers, Fitzgerald, said: “Mandatory is not on the table today.” The quota plan did not apply to Ireland, but Fitzgerald confirmed that Ireland would “opt in”.
Updated
Theresa May has confirmed that Britain will be opting out of the EU’s quota plan for the resettlement of refugees.
Arriving in Brussels for the extraordinary meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Council, May said Britain’s approach of resettling 20,000 over five years from refugee camps in the region would ensure that the most vulnerable are helped.
“What we need to do urgently is set up registration centres so that people are properly fingerprinted and registered when they arrive in Europe,” the Home Secretary said.
The aunt of Alan Kurdi the Syrian toddler who drowned earlier this month trying to reach Europe has made an emotional plea to Europe’s leaders to open their borders to those seeking sanctuary.
At an event in Brussels organised by the campaign group Avaaz, Tima Kurdi said:
“It’s too late for Alan and Ghalib and Rehanna, but it’s not too late for thousands of children and their families who risk everything trying to reach safe haven. The world has to do more. Instead of putting up fences, I appeal to Europe and the world’s politicians to open their doors. They’ve neglected these refugees for far too long, it’s time for action now and a shared plan to save them from war and misery.”
Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters
Europe’s interior ministers have begun arriving in Brussels for their emergency talks on the crisis.
Updated
Poland’s prime minister Ewa Kopacz has confirmed her government’s opposition to the imposition of binding EU quotas for the resettlement of refugees.
In a statement she said European Union’s outside borders must be strictly controlled.
She also said that Poland would restore its own border controls if it saw any outside threats. She did not elaborate.
For Polish speakers, here’s the clip.
The Dalai Lama has urged governments to put humanity ahead of national interests in their responses to refugee crisis, as he praised Germany and Austria for helping those “crying, starving and asking for help”, writes Harriet Sherwood.
However, speaking in Oxford on Monday at the start of a nine-day trip to the UK, the Tibetan spiritual leader declined to criticise the UK government’s proposal to take only 20,000 refugees over five years. “You have to consider many factors, whether you can take care of these people,” he said, adding that Britain was a small country and “you have to be practical”.
Ultimately the only solution to the mass movement of people fleeing war and persecution was “genuine peace” in their home countries and regions, added the Dalai Lama, who will address MPs at Westminster and give a talk at London’s O2 during his visit.
Referring to conflict and instability in the Middle East, a major factor behind the current refugee crisis, he said that the US’s forceful response to 9/11 had produced “a lot of unintended consequences”. He added: “The billions of dollars spent on weapons could be spent on education and health instead.”
He called for religious harmony across the globe, saying that faith was depicted as the cause of conflict. “People feel religion is a troublemaker [but in fact] religion teaches compassion, tolerance, forgiveness and contentment.”
The media, he said, should report love and harmony, not just focus on division. “The idea of a clash of civilisations is dangerous,” he said, adding that Islam emphasised love, not bloodshed.
New detention measures planned
EU governments are expected to back radical new plans on Monday for the detention of “irregular migrants”, the creation of large new refugee camps in Italy and Greece and longer-term aims for the funding and building of refugee camps outside of the EU to try to stop the people coming to Europe, writes Ian Traynor in Brussels.
A crunch meeting of EU interior ministers in Brussels called to grapple with Europe’s worst modern refugee crisis was also expected to water down demands from the European Commission, strongly supported by Germany, for the obligatory sharing of refugees across at least 22 countries.
A four-page draft statement, prepared on Monday morning by EU ambassadors before the ministers met, focused on “Fortress Europe” policies amid increasing confusion and random setting up of border controls in the Schengen free-travel area embarcing 26 countries.
The draft statement, obtained by The Guardian, said that “reception facilities will be organised so as to temporarily accommodate people” in Greece and Italy while they are identified, registered, and finger-printed. Their asylum claims are to be processed quickly and those who fail are to be deported promptly, the ministers say in the draft statement.
“It is crucial that robust mechanisms become operational immediately in Italy and Greece to ensure identification, registration and fingerprinting of migrants; to identify persons in need of international protection and support their relocation; and to identify irregular migrants to be returned.”
The Europeans are to set up new “rapid border intervention teams” to be deployed at “sensitive external borders.” Failed asylum-seekers who are expected to try to move to another EU country from Greece or Italy can be detained, the statement says.
“When voluntary return is not practicable and other measures on return are inadequate to prevent secondary movements, detention measures ... should be applied.”
The European Commission demanded last week that at least 22 EU countries accept a new system of quotas for refugees, with 160,000 being redistributed from Greece, Italy and Hungary under a binding new system.
Germany is insisting on the binding nature of the proposed new scheme and its unilateral decision on Sunday to re-establish national border controls within the Schengen area was widely seen as an attempt to force those the resisting mandatory quotas to yield. The resistance is strongest in eastern and central Europe.
The draft says that the ministers “committed” to sharing the 160,000, but made no mention of the system being obligatory, said no formal decision on the matter would be taken until next month and appeared to dilute the commission’s call by describing it as “the basis” for a decision which would also pay “due regard to the flexibility that could be needed by Member States in the implementation of the decision, in particular to accommodate unforeseen developments.”
In the medium-term, the draft says, the EU should aim at funding and building refugee camps outside Europe and that failed asylum-seekers could be sent from Europe to these camps which would not be in their countries of origin.
The EU should aim “at developing safe and sustainable reception capacities in the affected regions and providing lasting prospects and adequate procedures for refugees and their families until return to their country of origin is possible.”
EU governments would then be “in a position to find asylum applications of these persons inadmissible on safe third country grounds ... after which swift assisted return can follow.”
Updated
Summary
Here’s a roundup of the latest developments:
- David Cameron has traveled to Lebanon to defend Britain’s much-criticised response to the crisis. He insisted that hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Syrian civil war have been discouraged from “risking their lives” to travel to Europe by British aid totalling £1bn.
- More central European countries have followed Germany’s lead by reintroducing border controls. Austria dispatched troops to its frontiers with Hungary while Slovakia reintroduced controls at its borders with Austria and Hungary.
- The UN’s refugee agency has warned that tens of thousands of refugees face roaming Europe in “legal limbo” after the reintroduction of border controls. It said: “UNHCR is concerned that the combination of different, individual measures might create a situation where large numbers of refugees seeking in Europe the protection they are entitled to receive in line with international law, will find themselves moving around in legal limbo.”
- Germany’s vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has predicted that the number of refugees his country will accept this year will rise to one million. He also said he hoped that new border controls would only be temporary.
- The UN’s human rights chief has praised the British public response to the refugee crisis in the face of “long-standing xenophobia” from the press and some politicians. Zeid Raad al-Hussein also called for “expanded channels of regular migration and resettlement” in Europe.
- The home secretary, Theresa May, is leading Britain’s resistance to EU-wide refugee quota at an emergency meeting of interior ministers in Brussels. May has blamed scenes of drownings at sea on a “broken European migration system”, saying the tragedies such as the dozens of refugees found dead in the back of an abandoned lorry “have been exacerbated by the European system of no borders, the Schengen area, in which the UK has never taken part.”
-
Record numbers of people are crossing Hungary’s border with Serbia on the eve of new laws criminalise the act of crossing or damaging its newly built border fence. The authorities have announced that 5,353 arrived by noon – almost as many as the record number that arrived during the whole of Sunday.
After German newspapers published Arabic-language guides for refugees, Berlin’s public transport network has done the same for its rail map - with the help of a Syrian asylum-seeker, AFP reports.
The leaflet published by Berlin’s public transport operator BVG includes names of the capital’s main underground stations and essential information on the public transport system in Arabic.
“All translations were done by Ebrahim Kadour - himself a refugee from Syria who arrived in Berlin a few weeks ago - together with Rafael Sanchez from the ‘Moabit helps!’ initiative,” said BVG, referring to a volunteer group centred on the Berlin district of Moabit.
“Both worked voluntarily on it over a whole weekend,” it added in a statement.
Updated
Europe’s interior ministers are to set agree plans for holding camps in Greece and Italy, according to a draft seen by the Guardian’s Ian Traynor.
#migration eu intmins agree holding camps for reffos in greece/italy.'reception facilities to be organised to keep people temporary'- draft
— Ian Traynor (@traynorbrussels) September 14, 2015
The draft also weakens the language on plans to relocate 160,000 refugees. Last week EU president Jean-Claude Juncker said the quotas, including the resettled 40,000 peopel agreed in May, should be introduced in a “compulsory way”. But the draft plan now talks of “due regard to flexibility.”
#migration new draft for eu intmins waters down 120,000 relocation pledge - 'with due regard to flexibility needed by MSs in implementation'
— Ian Traynor (@traynorbrussels) September 14, 2015
But on detention the language has been strengthened.
#migration intmins toughen up, go for internment. new draft: 'When voluntary return not practicable, detention measures should be applied'
— Ian Traynor (@traynorbrussels) September 14, 2015
Updated
The number of new arrivals entering Hungary is heading for a new record on the eve of an expected border crackdown.
The authorities are reported to have announced that 5,353 arrived by noon – almost as many as the record number that arrived during the whole of Sunday.
5353 #refugees entered #Hungary on Monday until 12:00 police say. On Sunday the total number was 5809. Seems #Serbia is pushing them through
— Szabolcs Panyi (@panyiszabolcs) September 14, 2015
The figures came as the security forces were photographed using a railway wagon to patch a gap in Hungary’s new border fence.
Various seasoned Brussels watchers have noted that at least some of the countries reintroducing border controls have failed to notify the Europe of the change - something stipulated as part of the fraying Schengen agreement.
.@EU_Commission has not yet received formal notification abt #Austria reintroducing border controls #refugeecrisis
— Konsiczky Zoltán (@KonsiczkyZ) September 14, 2015
Commission says it has received no notification, as Schengen rules demand. https://t.co/4aFltgKJti
— Tom Nuttall (@tom_nuttall) September 14, 2015
At briefing, #EU official now says stopping a train NOT equivalent to closing a border. #Schengen
— Peter Spiegel (@SpiegelPeter) September 14, 2015
The Guardian’s Europe editor Ian Traynor says the Schengen system of free movement is under strain as never before.
Hungary’s border with Serbia is still open, but this is not expected to last.
#Röszke gate is still open, race to pass it turns to finish today, media is there. pic.twitter.com/koUHTFG3NJ
— MigrationAid Hungary (@MigrationAidHu) September 14, 2015
There is mounting concern that Hungary’s hardline government is about to introduce a much tougher approach to border control on Tuesday.
Human rights groups have questioned the legality of plans to process asylum seekers in airport-like transit zones under a new system that comes into force on Tuesday.
Prime Miniter Viktor Orbán has also vowed to cut to zero the number of migrants entering from next Tuesday.
Explaining the new system, the justice minister László Trócsányi said an area similar to an “airport transit zone” would be set up at the border.
“While it is located in the territory of the given state, the entry into the transit zone does not qualify, in immigration terms, as an entry into that state,” he said.
Activists fear this will strand people in a legal limbo and lead to the vast majority of asylum seekers being turned back
More video from Cameron’s visit to Lebanon.
Updated
Slovakia announces border controls
Slovakia has also reintroduced border controls along frontiers with Austria and Hungary, its interior ministry has announced.
The move comes after similar moves by Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria.
AFP quoted Slovak interior ministry spokeswoman Michaela Paulenova as saying:
“Following the announcement by Germany that it was temporarily introducing border controls at the borders with Austria, Slovakia has begun temporary border controls on border crossings with Hungary and Austria. .
“In connection with the emergency situation and the migratory flow, Slovak police strengthened its presence on the borders by 220 officers compared to standard operations,” she said, adding that controls were also being ramped up on “the green border (forests and rural areas) at selected locations.”
“The situation is constantly monitored and coordinated with police forces in Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic.”
Updated
The latest figures from Munich underscore why the German government took the drastic decision on Sunday to introduce temporary border controls, writes Luke Harding in Berlin.
Some 20,000 refugees arrived at Munich main train station over the weekend, including 7,100 who came on Sunday, before rail traffic between Austria and German was dramatically halted. Since the beginning of September 70,000 refugees have arrived in Munch, with many then routed to towns and cities all across Germany.
Trains between Austria and Germany resumed this morning, with more refugees expected later today. The line from the Austrian city of Salzburg remains shut after people were found wandering on the track.
Christoph Hillenbrand, the president of Upper Bavaria, who has been handling the crisis, said on Monday: “We can’t precisely say how the new border controls, and the temporary halting of train traffic from Austria, will affect the arrival of asylum seekers into Munich. Essentially we have to be prepared for more.”
Germany now expects one million refugees
Germany’s vice chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has predicted that the number of refugees his country will accept this year will rise to one million, from the current estimate of 800,000.
In the letter to his party he also said he hoped that new border controls would only be temporary.
Updated
A 30m gap in Hungary’s new border fence with Serbia will be closed by Tuesday when new immigration controls are due to come into force, according to the BBC’s James Reynolds.
Hungary-Serbia border pic.twitter.com/Fkri4hZbzt
— James Reynolds (@jreybbc) September 14, 2015
Austria has stepped up border controls with Hungary by dispatching troops to the border.
Chancellor Werner Faymann announced more than 2,000 troops will be deployed.
#BREAKING Around 2,200 members of the Austrian military will be deployed to help with the influx of migrants, Chancellor Faymann said
— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) September 14, 2015
Speaking to reporters Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner said: “If Germany introduces border controls, Austria has to follow.”
Updated
Omer Sami, a Palestinian refugee in Syria has trekked from one refugee camp in Damascus to another in Germany.
Speaking to Mona Mahmood he described the conditions in the camp in Wurzburg:
The camp in Wurzburg city is a deserted school which hosts more than a hundred refugees mainly from Syria, Afghanistan and Albania. There are no women or children in the camp. I sleep in a basemen in a double bed with my cousin who has accompanied me all the way from Damascus to Germany.
The basement is getting colder day by day. There is no heating system and not enough thick blankets. There is only a single main meal at lunchtime. For breakfast and dinner we get only tins of sardines or cheese triangles. I’m seriously thinking of going to Belgium to apply for asylum there. I think the pressure of refugees in Brussels is much less than in Germany and that means the asylum procedures would be faster.
I have received only €180 since I arrived in Germany last month and I’ve moved to three camps so far. I met two Syrian refugees the other day who said that if the situation does not improve they are thinking of going back to Syria.
A few German students visit the camp twice a week to teach us some German words that could help us in our daily communications. But this is not enough, we need a daily lessons in German to be able to read the newspapers and get integrated in the German society.
I used to work as a barber in Damascus to earn my living but now, I would like to complete my studies in Germany. I do not want to rely on the social welfare and isolate myself at home.
The camp officer told us today that it was highly possible another 30 refugee would be transferred to our camp soon despite the lack of space. The moment the war stops in Syria, I will be the first one to head back to my home in Damascus.
The UN’s human rights chief has praised the British public response to the refugee crisis in the face of “long-standing xenophobia” from the press and some politicians.
In a speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, Zeid Raad al-Hussein praised the “ordinary people” who have volunteered to help migrants and refugees in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany and “even — despite long-standing xenophobia of tabloids and some politicians — in the United Kingdom.”
He also called “expanded channels of regular migration and resettlement” in Europe.
Hussein said: “I urge European States to build on this surge of human feeling by putting in place an architecture of migration governance that is far more comprehensive, thoughtful, principled and effective. We need expanded channels of regular migration and resettlement – two measures which would prevent deaths and cut smuggling. Detention, particularly of children, and all forms of ill-treatment should cease, at borders and elsewhere.”
Despite the rosy pictures presented by David Cameron’s office of help being offered to refugees in Lebanon, Sam Jones and Kareem Shaheen point out that the plight of Syrians in Jordan and Lebanon is so dire that many are contemplating returning to their ruined homeland.
David Cameron is giving a press conference in Beirut. He said the visit provided the opportunity to thank Lebanon for hosting so many refugees.
He said: “It has been an opportunity to meet refugees who will be resettled in Britain and to talk to children who are starting school here today thanks to the UK aid that we are spending. But above all it has been an opportunity to say a very big ‘thank you’ to the Lebanese people for all they are doing to shoulder the burden of refugees fleeing Syria and to reiterate our commitment to do all we can to support them and the Syrian refugees in the years ahead.”
UNHCR says thousands of refugees face 'legal limbo'
The UN’s refugee agency has warned that tens of thousands of refugees face roaming Europe in “legal limbo” after the reintroduction of border controls by Germany and the planned border crackdown by Hungary.
In a statement ahead of today’s emergency meeting of interior ministers in Brussels the UNHCR said border controls should only be introduced in tandem with an effective reception and relocation programme for refugee. It said:
The recent successive announcements of different border control measures by a number of European countries impacted by the refugee and migration crisis only underlines the urgency of establishing a comprehensive European response.
This response must be based on the creation of effective reception centers, with the support of all parties concerned including UNHCR, to properly assist, register and screen people upon arrival in Greece, Italy and Hungary. This must be accompanied by the rapid implementation of a relocation programme as proposed by the European Commission. People in need of international protection in accordance with international law should be relocated amongst all European Union countries based on a fair distribution mechanism.
UNHCR is concerned that the combination of different, individual measures might create a situation where large numbers of refugees seeking in Europe the protection they are entitled to receive in line with international law, will find themselves moving around in legal limbo.
In this context, the decisions of tomorrow’s European Council of Ministers of the Interior are even more critical.
Record numbers enter Hungary
A record number of migrants and refugees crossed into Hungary on Sunday according to official figures released on the eve of an expected border crackdown.
Hungarian police recorded that 5,809 migrants were intercepted on Sunday the highest number since the crisis began.
The figure is almost twice the rate of last week, and a sharp increase on the previous record of 4,330.
The UN recorded more than a thousand people crossing into Hungary by 6am on Sunday.
Roszke, #Hungary: #UNHCR border monitor has counted 1257 people arriving since 6am this morning - majority #Syria pic.twitter.com/FDlvubQUgz
— Babar Baloch (@BabarBloch) September 12, 2015
Updated
This is the kind of scene that Cameron and his team must have been hoping for when planning his visit to Lebanon – Syrian refugee children chorusing “thank you” to the prime minister.
PM thanked by Lebanese/Syrian refugee kids in Beirut primary school where DfiD money is helping country hosting 1.1m pic.twitter.com/on4oQGTDf3
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) September 14, 2015
Updated
Cameron’s office has given more details of a £100m package to help Syrian refugees as the prime minister visited a camp in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley.
Cameron said the package was aimed helping to prevent refugees making dangerous journey’s to Europe.
He said:
As the second largest bilateral donor to the humanitarian crisis in Syria our aid effort is supporting thousands of people to rebuild their lives, providing protection, counselling and schooling, alongside the provision of basic food and water. Investment in health, education, jobs and stability is the most effective way to help people overseas, and it is clearly in Britain’s interests.
Around 3% of the 11 million Syrians forced from their homes have sought asylum in Europe, and without British aid hundreds of thousands more could be risking their lives seeking to get to Europe, so these funds are part of our comprehensive approach to tackle migration from the region.
For thousands of refugees this money means a meal for their families, the security of a home with basic sanitation and clean water, and for children it means an education so we don’t lose a generation to the Syrian conflict.
Our goal remains to support the development of a secure, stable and peaceful Syria. Without our investment in international development, the numbers of people seeking to embark on a perilous journey to Europe would be far greater.
The PM is visiting Lebanon today to see how #UKaid is helping vulnerable refugees from #Syria http://t.co/hWpJtFGHJF @ukinlebanon
— UK Prime Minister (@Number10gov) September 14, 2015
Updated
Summary
Welcome to live coverage of the refugee crisis.
EU interior ministers are gathering in Brussels for emergency talks on how to tackle the mounting refugee crisis a day after Germany temporarily reintroduced border controls.
Meanwhile, David Cameron is in Lebanon to visit refugee camps.
Here’s a roundup of the latest developments:
- David Cameron has traveled to Lebanon to defend Britain’s much-criticised response to the crisis. He insisted that hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Syrian civil war have been discouraged from “risking their lives” to travel to Europe by British aid totalling £1bn.
- The home secretary, Theresa May, will lead Britain’s resistance to EU-wide refugee quota at an emergency meeting of interior ministers in Brussels. May has blamed scenes of drownings at sea on a “broken European migration system”, saying the tragedies such as the dozens of refugees found dead in the back of an abandoned lorry “have been exacerbated by the European system of no borders, the Schengen area, in which the UK has never taken part.”
- Germany reintroduced border controls and dramatically halted all train traffic with Austria, after the country’s regions said they could no longer cope with the overwhelming number of refugees entering the country. Interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, said the move was “necessary,” but would cause disruption.
- Hungary is preparing to enforce new border laws on Tuesday that will criminalise the act of crossing or damaging its newly built border fence. This will potentially prompt large numbers of refugees to veer westwards, through Croatia and Slovenia in order to reach more welcoming countries such as Germany and Austria.
- At least 34 people, including 15 children, drowned when their overcrowded boat capsized in high winds off a Greek island on Sunday, the latest asylum seeker tragedy at sea. The new deaths came as Athens angrily defended its handling of the mounting refugee crisis in Europe and appealed for more help.
Updated
