– ‘Deeply dysfunctional’ system –
Austria threw open its borders over the weekend to allow thousands of refugees to travel from Hungary to Western Europe after chaos erupted at Budapest’s main train station where thousands had been stranded in temporary camps.
Most of the refugees are hoping to reach Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, which is expecting a record 800,000 new asylum seekers this year, four times the number in 2014.
But Chancellor Werner Faymann on Sunday said the “temporary” relaxation of border rules would have to end, and that “a measure of this type cannot be a solution” to the migrant crisis.
EU interior ministers are meeting on September 14, and Austria is among those pushing for a summit to be held swiftly afterwards.
The 28-nation EU has struggled to build a coordinated response to deal with the flood of people at its borders, and on Sunday UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres criticised the huge disparity in members’ responses.
“The European asylum system is deeply dysfunctional, it works badly. Some countries make the necessary effort, and the effort of many others is nearly non-existent,” he told French broadcasters.
But he said the situation could be tackled “if everyone agrees on a joint action plan,” calling for unity days before European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is set to unveil a plan to relocate 120,000 refugees from Italy, Greece and Hungary.
Germany’s Welt am Sonntag newspaper said the EU plan, expected to be released on Wednesday, would see Germany accepting 31,000, followed by France with 24,000 and Spain with almost 15,000.
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