Associated Press — Feb 8, 2016
The Latest on the influx of migrants into Europe (all times local):
Feb 8, 6:15 p.m.
Austrian foreign minister Sebastian Kurz says his country will not be able to handle the same number of migrants this year as it did in 2015 and will help Western Balkan nations stop them at their borders.
Last year Austria received 90,000 asylum-seekers, which overstretched its capacities, Kurz said Monday in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo.
“Macedonia is ready to accept the help of the European Union. This is unfortunately not happening in Greece,” Kurz said, insisting that the EU offered Greece support but it was rejected
He said last summer he warned that the welcome culture in Europe was correct on a human level but that it could encourage more people to head toward the continent, which is what happened.
Kurz noted that it was wrong for Europe to watch migrants arriving in Greece and then let them be directed further to non-EU countries.
Feb 8, 5:15 p.m.
Turkish coast guard officials say they have recovered the bodies of five more migrants, raising to 27 the death toll in the latest boat sinking accident off the Turkish coast. At least 11 of the victims are children, an official said.
A coast guard statement said a search-and-rescue mission, backed by helicopters, was still underway for other migrants reported missing after a boat carrying them to the Greek island of Lesbos went down in the Bay of Edremit on Monday.
The Dogan news agency had earlier reported that 11 other migrants had drowned off the resort of Dikili, south of the Bay of Edremit, and put the total death toll at more than 30. It later corrected that report and said the 11 victims were from the same accident and were included in the coast guard officials’ toll.
Ali Sirmali, local administrator for the town of Edremit, said authorities have recovered the bodies of 11 children.
Feb 8, 4:35 p.m.
Hungary’s prime minister says Western European leaders who consider migration a positive issue are to blame for the “very serious terror risks” and for deteriorating everyday security on the continent.
Viktor Orban says migration “must be stopped” and has reiterated his call for a “European defense line” on the northern borders of Greece to end the influx of people.
Orban, who hosted Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo on Monday, said that the “migrant phenomenon did not break into Europe violently” but that migrants were called into Western Europe “without control, filtering or security screening.”
Szydlo also called for the strengthening of the southern borders of Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone, saying that “the migration issue has to be solved basically outside the EU borders.”
Feb 8, 4:30 p.m.
Opponents are accusing British Prime Minister David Cameron of using scare tactics after he said that thousands of asylum-seekers could come to Britain overnight if the country votes to leave the European Union.
A Cameron spokesman said it was “perfectly feasible” that France would end existing border arrangements with Britain, leading to “thousands of asylum-seekers pitching up in southeast England.”
Currently, British border officials check U.K.-bound passengers on French soil, under an arrangement between the two countries.
Downing St. says that if the arrangement ended, thousands of migrants living in makeshift camps near the French port of Calais would be free to cross the English Channel.
But David Davis, a Euroskeptic lawmaker from Cameron’s Conservative Party, said “the idea that leaving the EU would give us less control of our borders is simply preposterous.” Another Conservative legislator, Sarah Wollaston, accused Cameron of “ratcheting up the alarmist rhetoric.”