A top European Union official has lambasted member countries for their slow response to the refugee emergency. The machines would be linked to an EU database set up to help determine which country should be responsible for handling any asylum applications by comparing collected fingerprints. Spokesman Zoltan Kovacs told the Associated Press on Wednesday that although Hungary tried to apply the European Union's asylum rules and register refugees "we are not going to take responsibility for developments that came after the German invitation for migrants (or) asylum-seekers coming through the Western Balkan route." Kovacs also rejected criticism of Hungary's asylum procedures, saying the country applied "very tough rules" because what Europe was facing was "not a refugee crisis, it's a mass migration crisis." A senior Greek official says the government will ask Europe's border protection agency Frontex to help set up a sea deportation route to send migrants who reach the country illegally back to Turkey. The official told The Associated Press the plan would involve chartering boats on Lesbos and other Greek islands to send back migrants who were not considered eligible for asylum in the European Union. Jimmie Akesson, the leader of the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, asked the prime minister whether he saw any cultural dimensions in the assaults, given that police have said most of the suspects were foreign nationals. Nils Muiznieks, human rights commissioner for the Council of Europe, issued a statement Wednesday related to complaints against Austria for transferring migrants to Hungary according to Europe's so-called Dublin asylum rules, despite concerns about Hungarian abuses.
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