This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/15/hungary-strict-new-border-controls-crackdown-refugees-serbia
The article has changed 8 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Hungary imposes strict new border controls in crackdown on refugees | Hungary imposes strict new border controls in crackdown on refugees |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| One of the main routes used by refugees to reach the safety of the European Union clanged shut early on Tuesday morning, when Hungary formally closed its border, finished fortifying a long-promised border fence, and blocked off a pathway that has brought over 160,000 people into northern Europe since the start of the year. | One of the main routes used by refugees to reach the safety of the European Union clanged shut early on Tuesday morning, when Hungary formally closed its border, finished fortifying a long-promised border fence, and blocked off a pathway that has brought over 160,000 people into northern Europe since the start of the year. |
| Shortly after midnight, about 100 people, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, were turned back from the legal land crossing in Horgos, on the border between Serbia and Hungary. Earlier in the day, police had wheeled a train carriage across a set of nearby disused railway tracks, which for weeks had been left open to allow refugees to walk unhindered into the EU. | Shortly after midnight, about 100 people, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, were turned back from the legal land crossing in Horgos, on the border between Serbia and Hungary. Earlier in the day, police had wheeled a train carriage across a set of nearby disused railway tracks, which for weeks had been left open to allow refugees to walk unhindered into the EU. |
| Hungarian police said they detained 16 people claiming to be Syrian and Afghan migrants early on Tuesday for illegally crossing the Serbian border fence. A spokeswoman said the migrants were suspected of lifting the razor wire fence to get into Hungary. | |
| Meanwhile at least 22 people trying to reach Greece from Turkey have drowned after their boat sank, according to Turkish media, a day after EU interior ministers agreed on plans aimed at denying the right of asylum to innumerable refugees by funding and building camps for them in Africa and elsewhere outside the EU. | |
| The hardline Hungarian government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s hopes its moves mark the symbolic conclusion of a months-long attempt to seal its border to an unprecedented wave of refugees who began to make their way through the country in the spring, and whose numbers have risen sharply in recent weeks. | |
| More than 9,000 refugees made it into Hungary in the final hours before the border was sealed, officials said in a statement, but a substantially greater number of people – still making their way through Syria, Turkey, Greece and the Balkan states – have now been left in limbo. | More than 9,000 refugees made it into Hungary in the final hours before the border was sealed, officials said in a statement, but a substantially greater number of people – still making their way through Syria, Turkey, Greece and the Balkan states – have now been left in limbo. |
| Related: Refugee crisis: Hungary launches border crackdown – live updates | Related: Refugee crisis: Hungary launches border crackdown – live updates |
| One of the first families to be shut out was a Palestinian-Syrian family from the Damascus suburb of Yarmouk. Carrying two babies all the way from Syria, they have been forced to find a new home just a few decades after their parents’ generation fled from Israel. Radwan, a 38-year-old printer and the father of the family, said: “We’re Palestinian-Syrians, where else are we supposed to go now? We’re coming from destruction and killing. I shouldn’t have to take five children all the way here for us to be shut out here.” | One of the first families to be shut out was a Palestinian-Syrian family from the Damascus suburb of Yarmouk. Carrying two babies all the way from Syria, they have been forced to find a new home just a few decades after their parents’ generation fled from Israel. Radwan, a 38-year-old printer and the father of the family, said: “We’re Palestinian-Syrians, where else are we supposed to go now? We’re coming from destruction and killing. I shouldn’t have to take five children all the way here for us to be shut out here.” |
| But his wife Mayada warned of the futility of trying to stop people fleeing from a fate far worse. “This won’t stop people,” she said, cradling her months-old baby on the road next to the border gates. “For example, my sister and her husband and their three children will leave Syria soon. I have told them that it is difficult, but they will still come.” | But his wife Mayada warned of the futility of trying to stop people fleeing from a fate far worse. “This won’t stop people,” she said, cradling her months-old baby on the road next to the border gates. “For example, my sister and her husband and their three children will leave Syria soon. I have told them that it is difficult, but they will still come.” |
| For now, those at the border have promised to wait until they are let through, but smugglers say they are already plotting other routes. A car-smuggler in Belgrade suggested going through Croatia, via the town of Sid, while two smugglers who had just dropped people on the Hungarian border said they already had alternatives. “We have other ways,” said one. “This was the easiest, but we have other ones.” | For now, those at the border have promised to wait until they are let through, but smugglers say they are already plotting other routes. A car-smuggler in Belgrade suggested going through Croatia, via the town of Sid, while two smugglers who had just dropped people on the Hungarian border said they already had alternatives. “We have other ways,” said one. “This was the easiest, but we have other ones.” |
| Under plans endorsed in Brussels on Monday, ministers agreed that once the proposed system of refugee camps outside the EU was up and running, asylum claims from people in the camps would be inadmissible in Europe. | |
| The emergency meeting of EU interior ministers was called to grapple with Europe’s worst modern refugee crisis. It broke up in acrimony amid failure to agree on a new system of binding quotas for refugees being shared across the EU and other decisions being deferred until next month. | The emergency meeting of EU interior ministers was called to grapple with Europe’s worst modern refugee crisis. It broke up in acrimony amid failure to agree on a new system of binding quotas for refugees being shared across the EU and other decisions being deferred until next month. |
| The lacklustre response to a refugee emergency that is turning into a full-blown European crisis focused on “Fortress Europe” policies aimed at excluding refugees and shifting the burden of responsibility on to third countries, either of transit or of origin. | The lacklustre response to a refugee emergency that is turning into a full-blown European crisis focused on “Fortress Europe” policies aimed at excluding refugees and shifting the burden of responsibility on to third countries, either of transit or of origin. |
| The ministers called for the establishment of refugee camps in Italy and Greece and for the detention of “irregular migrants” denied asylum and facing deportation but for whom “voluntary return” was not “practicable”. | The ministers called for the establishment of refugee camps in Italy and Greece and for the detention of “irregular migrants” denied asylum and facing deportation but for whom “voluntary return” was not “practicable”. |
| The most bruising battle was over whether Europe should adopt a new system of mandatory quotas for sharing refugees. The scheme, proposed by the European commission last week, is strongly supported by Germany, which sought to impose the idea on the mainly eastern European rejectionists. | The most bruising battle was over whether Europe should adopt a new system of mandatory quotas for sharing refugees. The scheme, proposed by the European commission last week, is strongly supported by Germany, which sought to impose the idea on the mainly eastern European rejectionists. |
| Hungary’s government said it would have no part of the scheme, from which it would benefit, while Thomas de Maizière, the German interior minister, complained that the agenda for the meeting was inadequate. | Hungary’s government said it would have no part of the scheme, from which it would benefit, while Thomas de Maizière, the German interior minister, complained that the agenda for the meeting was inadequate. |
| The ministers agreed “in principle” to share 160,000 refugees across at least 22 countries, taking them from Greece, Hungary, and Italy, but delayed a formal decision until next month, made plain the scheme should be voluntary rather than binding and demanded ‘flexibility’. De Maizière, by contrast, called for precise definitions of how refugees would be shared. | The ministers agreed “in principle” to share 160,000 refugees across at least 22 countries, taking them from Greece, Hungary, and Italy, but delayed a formal decision until next month, made plain the scheme should be voluntary rather than binding and demanded ‘flexibility’. De Maizière, by contrast, called for precise definitions of how refugees would be shared. |
| Luxembourg, chairing the meeting, signalled that there was a sufficient majority to impose the quotas, but that the meeting had balked at forcing a vote. | Luxembourg, chairing the meeting, signalled that there was a sufficient majority to impose the quotas, but that the meeting had balked at forcing a vote. |
| The meeting took place as curbs on free movement across Europe snowballed following Germany’s unilateral and controversial decision on Sunday to re-establish national border controls at the centre of Europe’s free-travel Schengen area of 26 countries. Austria and Slovakia followed suit, while the Dutch said they were stepping up border area patrols and the Belgian authorities said they were considering parallel action. | The meeting took place as curbs on free movement across Europe snowballed following Germany’s unilateral and controversial decision on Sunday to re-establish national border controls at the centre of Europe’s free-travel Schengen area of 26 countries. Austria and Slovakia followed suit, while the Dutch said they were stepping up border area patrols and the Belgian authorities said they were considering parallel action. |