Balkan migrant route is closed down
Author: Hina
https://about.hr/news/balkan/balkan-migrant-route-closed-down-13328
Wed, 09/03/2016 - 11:02
The Balkan route, which has been used for months by more than a million migrants from the Middle East and elsewhere to reach western Europe, is being closed after countries on the route announced stricter border controls on Tuesday.
Slovenia has reinforced its border crossing regime as of midnight and will allow through only migrants with valid passports and visas or those seeking asylum. Serbia has announced similar measures on its borders with Macedonia and Bulgaria.
As of midnight, Slovenia will fully apply the Schengen agreement on its border with Croatia in line with an agreement to close the Balkan migrant route, reached at the EU-Turkey summit in Brussels on Monday, STA news agency said.
Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said after the summit that the Balkan migrant route would be closed and that only migrants with valid documents would be allowed into the Schengen passport-free zone.
Croatian Interior Minister Vlaho Orepic told the RTL commercial television channel on Tuesday night that Croatia too would apply new rules and that only people with valid passports would be allowed across the border. "There has been a change to the regime. Europe has obviously embarked on a new phase in dealing with the migrant crisis. It has been decided that the Schengen countries will apply the Schengen rules," he said.
Orepic said that there had been no migrant arrivals in Croatia over the last two days, adding that before that between 400 and 500 had arrived daily.
"Europe's border will be on the Macedonian-Greek border and we will comply with the decisions made," Orepic said.
In the last 14 months 1.13 million migrants, fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and north Africa, have arrived in Europe, mostly via Turkey and Greece, causing the worst migrant crisis since the Second World War. Turkey is currently providing shelter to 2.7 million Syrian refugees.
Last month Austria limited the number of asylum seekers it would take in, causing a domino effect of border closures on the Balkan route and leaving tens of thousands of migrants stranded on the border between Greece and Macedonia.
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MIGRANTS CHANGED THE ROUTE: They are using Albania to go to EU
http://www.telegraf.rs/english/2017765-migrants-changed-the-route-they-are-using-albania-to-go-to-eu
The Minister stated that the piling of migrants on the Albanian border is the result of the decision of Macedonia to close the border for the migrants from Afghanistan and to start controlling the refugees from Syria and Iraq
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Frontex Doesn't Rule Out Migrant Route through Bulgaria
http://www.novinite.com/articles/173501/Frontex+Doesn't+Rule+Out+Migrant+Route+through+Bulgaria
March 12, 2016, Saturday // 09:24
File photo, EPA/BGNES
Bulgaria might be affected to a bigger extent by the migrant crisis after the Western Balkans route is closed, EU border agency Frontex's Executive Director Fabrice Leggeri has said.
His comments follow a move by the Western Balkans to seal their borders to thousands of migrants stranded in Northern Greece following an agreement between EU leaders and Turkey on measures to deal with the migrant influx.
Leggeri has explained, commenting for Le Monde newspaper, that the flow could be divided into two "parts", one through Albania and then taking the Adriatic route further to Europe, and another via Bulgaria.
However, he has noted that sailing conditions across the Black Sea were "complicated" if compared to those in the Aegean between Turkey and Greece.
The latter route has been used by thousands of migrants trying to cross into Europe. Reports of beatings and pushbacks on the Bulgaria-Turkey border, along with stricter border control and a barbed-wire fence are said to have discouraged many migrants from entering Bulgaria to continue westwards.
Earlier it was reported that both Albania and Bulgaria were stepping up border security measures and preparing for new pressure on their frontiers.
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Dozens of migrants protest in Idomeni
http://hr.n1info.com/a110127/Svijet/Svijet/Vise-desetaka-migranata-prosvjeduje-u-Idomeniju.html
Written by: Hina
Dozens of people protested Saturday in Idomeni, where he blocked more than 14,000 migrants, demanding the opening of the border with Macedonia, including the Syrian refugees who began a hunger strike. Around 200 refugees, especially Syrians and Iraqis with children, sat on the border gauge chanting "Open the border."
This kind of protest repeated in Idomeni where the border between Greece and Macedonia closed for a week. Among them is 44-year-old Syrian Nazim Serhan, who on Saturday began a hunger strike in front of the tent in Idomeni. He travels with his three children and wants to join his wife, suffering from cancer, and a fourth child who are in Germany.
"I want to see, at least for a day," he told the media.
Greek Deputy Defence Minister Dimitris Vitsas, responsible for the harmonization of migration inflows, said on Saturday that he hoped that the situation will improve in Idomeni "for a week, without the use of force." Speaking to Mega TV, Vitsas stressed that the government will try to "convince" refugees "to be placed in reception centers" in the country.
Currently the camp in Idomeni located about 12,000 migrants and refugees, according to official records on Saturday, while thousands more camped on surrounding fields in extremely difficult hygienic conditions.
Due to the poor conditions faced by some refugees have begun in recent days to return to Athens, but on the other hand constantly new groups of refugees arriving in Idomeni. In Greece is currently 42,000 refugees and migrants, of which 7,700 of them on Greek islands, the main entrance to Europe, where coming to the Turkish coast.
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Merkel's Nightmare: Cyprus Threatens to Block EU-Ankara Migration Deal
http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160312/1036180094/cyprus-eu-ankara-migration-deal.html
17:46 12.03.2016(updated 17:49 12.03.2016)
Cyprus will not lift the veto on Turkey’s admission to the European Union unless an agreement on Cyprus reunification is signed.
Brussels has agreed a deal with Ankara, according to which the EU would double its financial aid to Turkey (from €3 billion to €6 billion) and consider imposing a visa-free regime for Turks coming to the Schengen zone.
In addition, Ankara has demanded from Brussels to open five new negotiating chapters and accelerate talks on Turkey’s accession to the bloc if an agreement on Cyprus reunification is sealed.
"We will not lift our veto on those chapters," Cyprus Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides told Politico.
The diplomat underscored that his priority is the negotiations over the reunification of the Greek and Turkish halves of the island.
"When we resolve the problem, everything will be lifted," he added.
Cyprus has frozen six negotiating chapters in the migration deal between Ankara and Brussels, including the five that Turkey has insisted on.
EU leaders are due to approve the agreement during a meeting on March 17-18 in Brussels.
A couple walk through the buffer zone as they cross from the Turkish-controlled northern Nicosia to the Greek side of the Cypriot capital via Paphos Gate pedestrian border crossing on June 28, 2012.
© AFP 2016/ Behrouz Mehri
So Close and Yet So Far: How Realistic Is Cyprus Reunification?
At the same time, there is still a chance that Ankara and Nicosia will be able to agree on Cyprus reunification. One of the thorniest issues includes whether Turkey will withdraw its 30,000 troops from the north. Only when the issue is resolved will an agreement be put to a referendum.
In 2004, Cypriot Greeks rejected reunification at a referendum.
Nicosia fears that if it lifts its veto on admission talks with Turkey Greek Cypriots reject the decision.
"If the president says yes [to talks with Turkey], without advancements on the talks, the domestic front will be weakened and the chances for a referendum for a yes will be far less," the minister said. "Why don’t they leave us alone to negotiate and finish the issue of Cyprus first? And then everything will fall into place."
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PROCEEDINGS OF WWIII
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=42271
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