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Friday, October 16, 2015

The Latest: Slovenia beefs up its border controls

Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec says "our main objective is to provide for security and order in republic of Slovenia and make sure migrants who arrive are received properly." Europe's migration commissioner says Greece has overcome earlier delays in handling refugees while Luxembourg's foreign minister says more asylum-seekers have to apply in the first EU nation they arrive in, most often Greece. EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, Luxembourg's Jean Asselborn and Greek migration minister Ioannis Mouzalas spoke Friday after visiting the island of Lesbos, the main point of entry into the European Union for hundreds of thousands fleeing war and poverty. Hungary clamped down on its border with Serbia with a similar barrier on Sept. 15. [...] migrants have been taking a detour through Croatia to reach Hungary. Poland's prime minister says she will send border guards and equipment to help Hungary seal its border with Serbia where thousands of migrants are passing. Swedish prosecutors have indicted an Eritrean asylum-seeker on two counts of murder for the stabbing deaths of a 55-year-old woman and her 27-year-old son at an Ikea furniture store in August. A judicial official said Friday that Thessaloniki prosecutor Lefteris Michailidis has ordered the police internal affairs squad to investigate more than 20 complaints forwarded by human rights groups. A Spanish court has ruled that 16 police officers had done nothing wrong to contribute to the drowning of 15 migrants as they tried to swim from Morocco to the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta last year. Interior Ministry videos showed police firing rubber bullets as the migrants swam toward Ceuta's shore on Feb. 6, 2014, but officials denied the action contributed to the drowning. Slovenia's prime minister has warned of a "domino effect" if Hungary closes its border with Croatia to stop the flow of migrants trying to reach Western Europe. [...] Cerar also warns that "if borders north of us would start getting closed or much tighter controls were applied, Slovenia will act reciprocally in the same way," according to the official STA news agency. Croatia's prime minister says the country has prepared for the possibility that Hungary will close its border to stop the flow of migrants trying to reach Western Europe. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says the country's national security cabinet on Friday afternoon will discuss the possible closure of the border with Croatia at all but official crossing points, after his return from Brussels where EU leaders have been discussing ways to stem the flow of migrants. Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacz says the police are prepared to enforce any decision immediately. Boris Cheshirkov, the Bulgarian representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, says some 3,100 migrants have died this year while attempting to reach the European Union, but the incident at the Bulgarian-Turkish border on Thursday was the first case of a fatal shooting on the borders of the EU. "A group of 54 people, aged between 20 and 30 - all from Afghanistan - was intercepted by a patrol of two border guards and a police officer after crossing into Bulgarian territory," Kostov told reporters Friday morning.


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