German Chancellor Angela Merkel is telling European allies the continent's open-borders system can only work if others share responsibility for the migrant crisis. [...] Merkel has made little headway in persuading many other European Union members to share the burden of people seeking safety and a better life. Merkel said after meeting her Romanian counterpart Thursday: "I don't want to make any concrete threats here ... but I would like to say that a Schengen (border-free travel) system can only work if joint responsibility is taken for refugees and joint responsibility is taken for protecting external borders." Immigration officials said Thursday 32,478 people sought shelter in the Nordic nation in 2015 in comparison to 3,651 in 2014. Finnish immigration officials said earlier this week that recent measures by neighboring Sweden and Denmark to tighten border controls points have substantially decreased the number of arrivals. The countries of the visa-free Schengen Zone aren't supposed to have any internal border controls but member states can temporarily reintroduce them if they face threats to public order or security. The European Union says Turkey is not doing enough to halt the flow of migrants as countries in northern Europe tighten border controls in an effort to manage the arrivals. Turkey agreed in November to do more to stem the flow of migrants into Greece in exchange for billions of euros in refugee aid money, an easing of visa restrictions and the fast-tracking of its EU membership process.
 |
| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.sfgate.com |
