Regional Plan to Deal with Balkan Route Considered

By , 31 May 2018, 09:24 AM News
Migrants in Hungary near the Serbian border 2015 Migrants in Hungary near the Serbian border 2015 Wikimedia: Gémes Sándor/SzomSzed

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STA, 30 May 2018 - Countries along the Balkan migration route have agreed a joint regional plan to tackle illegal migrations, Austrian Interior Minister Herbert Kickl revealed after phone talks with his regional counterparts, including Slovenia's Vesna Györkös Žnidar. 

Kickl said the plan had been agreed with Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia, Austrian press agency APA reported on Wednesday.

The details have not been revealed, but operating measures are to be finalised by police commissioners from the region who are meeting at Brdo pri Kranju next Wednesday.

At the Salzburg Forum ministerial on 14 and 15 June, other Central European countries will be invited to join the plan, said Kickl, who also stressed that Austria would close its borders in the event of a rerun of the 2015-2016 migration crisis.

The Slovenian Interior Ministry said Kickl and Györkös Žnidar agreed in the conversation that the migration situation in the Balkans was deteriorating compared to last year.

They stressed that protection of the external EU borders was crucial, whereby the EU should use all the means at its disposal, including deployment of police officers of the border agency Frontex.

But Györkös Žnidar also stressed that the situation in Slovenia was under control, that Slovenian authorities were fully implementing Schengen border checks, and that a series of measures had been adopted to beef up control.

Kickl was quoted as saying that potential migrants, traffickers and law enforcement from the region should be sent a clear message that Slovenia and Austria will not allow a repeat of the last migration crisis.

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