Germany to reinstate border controls over surge in refugees

[Stelio Kontos]

http://news.yahoo.com/munich-buckles...033651158.html

Germany was set Sunday to reinstate border controls with Austria, media reports said, as Europe's top economy struggled to cope with a record influx of refugees.

Tragedy struck again off the coast of Greece, with 34 more migrants -- among them babies and children -- drowning when their wooden boat capsized in high winds.

Athens, on the frontline of the massive surge of migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe, angrily dismissed criticism of its handling of the crisis and appealed for outside help.

Local authorities in Germany, which has earned praise for its welcoming stance towards refugees, were meanwhile buckling under the sudden surge of arrivals.

Passport checks had been abolished for countries within Europe's Schengen zone, but the German decision to bring back controls is expected to be announced by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere at a press conference on Sunday evening, several media reports said.

Austria's rail company also said it was suspending trains into Germany.

Some 13,015 refugees arrived in Munich on Saturday alone, and at least 1,400 are expected Sunday to reach the southern German city -- the end of their exhausting and often perilous journey through Hungary and Austria.

Europe's biggest economy has become the destination of choice for many refugees, particularly for Syrians after Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to relax asylum rules for citizens of the war-torn country.

"Given the numbers from yesterday, it is very clear that we have reached the upper limit of our capacity," said a Munich police spokesman.

Federal transport minister Alexander Dobrindt also said "effective measures are necessary now to stop the influx".

"That includes help for countries from where refugees are fleeing and also includes an effective control of our own borders which also no longer works given the EU's complete failure to protect its external borders."

Dobrindt was essentially referring to the border between Turkey and Greece, where many migrants have crossed.

Merkel herself had called Saturday on Athens, which facing its own deep economic crisis, to make more effort to protect the EU's external borders.

But interim Prime Minister Vassiliki Thanou branded criticism of Greece as "unacceptable", as another 34 people -- among them four babies and 11 young children -- perished when their boat capsized off the island of Farmakonisi.

Eight of the victims were found in the hold.

"Greece is strictly applying European and international treaties without ignoring the humanity of the situation," she said on a visit to Lesbos, an island which has been struggling with the massive influx.

European Union home affairs ministers will hold emergency talks on Monday, while Organisation of Islamic Cooperation was due to discuss the crisis Sunday.

While Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey are housing millions of refugees from Syria, many wealthy Gulf states are facing increasing scrutiny over their apparent reluctance to take in people fleeing the conflict.

- 'Brink of collapse?' -

The International Organisation for Migration said Friday that more than 430,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean to Europe this year, with 2,748 dying en route or going missing.

In Munich, order had largely returned to the city's main railway station on Sunday even though the federal interior ministry said 13,015 people had arrived over the past day.

But Germany's local authorities say they are at the end of their tether.

The president of the Upper Bavaria region, Christoph Hillenbrand, said he did not know "how we can cope", according to the Bild am Sonntag tabloid which headline its article "Munich on the brink of collapse".

Bavarian public television BR said the city "came very close to a humanitarian disaster", although the authorities finally managed to limit the numbers of people sleeping on mattresses on the floor to just a few dozen, rather than the hundreds as earlier feared.

- European divisions -

In a sign that the city was running out of options, regular passenger trains will be cleared out to transport refugees.

The aim is to rapidly send refugees onwards to other German cities to free up space for new arrivals.

The authorities are also mulling over whether to open up the Olympiahalle -- a stadium used for the 1972 Olympics and which today serves as a concert hall or sports arena -- as a temporary shelter for the refugees.

As the continent scrambles to respond to the biggest movement of people since World War II, sharp divisions have emerged among the European Union's 28 member states.

While Germany and France back proposals to help "frontline" states Italy, Greece and Hungary struggling with the influx, European Commission plans for sharing 160,000 new arrivals in a quota scheme are facing resistance from eastern members.

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka insisted his country would never accept compulsory quotas, saying that the system "won't work", while Slovakia said it would also vote against the measure.

Hungary, which reported a new record in migrant arrivals -- 4,330 on Saturday -- was working around the clock to finish a controversial anti-migrant fence along its border with Serbia.

Budapest has recorded some 180,000 people entering illegally this year and has passed a raft of tough new laws that will take effect on Tuesday, meaning anyone crossing the border illegally can be deported or even jailed.

Hardline Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had said that the migrants are "not coming our way from war zones but from camps in Syria's neighbours... So these people are not fleeing danger".

Describing the "very dismal situation" at Hungarian police camps, Human Rights Watch emergencies director Peter Bouckaert said people are kept in tents with very little food and given almost no information.

Hilarity. When Greece and Italy were buckling under the onslaught Germany lectured and demanded Schengen be respected. Now that they're buckling, well, it's time to do exactly what other countries have been asking for for months. Funny that. Also lol at trying to blame Greece. What do they want us to do, machine-gun civilians? That might be in their wheelhouse historically, but not ours. There's nothing more Greece can do, our borders with Turkey are mostly islands. No one has a navy large enough to patrol every single island every single day. Germany made a point to undercut Greek sovereignty in the debt crisis, and then has the gall to blame Greece?

Also, didn't German leaders criticize Hungary for wanting to shut down their borders?

[Wells]

Makes sense. Standard porous EU border policies while also trying to handle refugee waves is in no one's best interest.

[Deleted]

Send them to Sweden.

They need more people in their depopulating North.

[Mihalik]

The problem is that Germany has a self contradictory attitude to this issue.

On one hand they offer asylum to anyone who can make it to Germany, but they are also asking transit countries to halt the flow of refugees. This is absurd. They basically turned everything between Syria and Germany into some strange Hunger Games concourse. We'll try to stop you from getting here, but if you make it here, you are welcome.

If anything they are making the situation worse. And all this because the German government lacks any sort of backbone, and while they are aware that they are making it worse and that they are digging themselves in a hole, in the same time they are trying to come off as great humanitarians.

[Zoranon]

This is just hilarious really. First their retarded statements about accepting all Syrians refugees make the migrant situation a lot worse and now they are cutting themselves of?

Doubly so after criticising Hungary for doing the same thing.

[Deleted]

The problem is that Germany has a self contradictory attitude to this issue.

On one hand they offer asylum to anyone who can make it to Germany, but they are also asking transit countries to halt the flow of refugees. This is absurd. They basically turned everything between Syria and Germany into some strange Hunger Games concourse. We'll try to stop you from getting here, but if you make it here, you are welcome.

If anything they are making the situation worse. And all this because the German government lacks any sort of backbone, and while they are aware that they are making it worse and that they are digging themselves in a hole, in the same time they are trying to come off as great humanitarians.

Darwin's survival of the fittest.

Only the strongest genes survive. The genes that will in time blend with the native German master race genes

It's a sick and twisted Nazi idea.

I'm not surprised.

[Deleted]

What?! Other countries are suffering because Germany said to bring them in ... now they're closing the borders?! Oh Germans, you fix this mess or better watch out, you just majorly pissed other european countries the second time!

[Wells]

This is just hilarious really. First their retarded statements about accepting all Syrians refugees make the migrant situation a lot worse and now they are cutting themselves of?

Doubly so after criticising Hungary for doing the same thing.

Border control doesn't mean sealing the border. Read the article.

[PosPosPos]

The problem is that Germany has a self contradictory attitude to this issue.

On one hand they offer asylum to anyone who can make it to Germany, but they are also asking transit countries to halt the flow of refugees. This is absurd. They basically turned everything between Syria and Germany into some strange Hunger Games concourse. We'll try to stop you from getting here, but if you make it here, you are welcome.

If anything they are making the situation worse. And all this because the German government lacks any sort of backbone, and while they are aware that they are making it worse and that they are digging themselves in a hole, in the same time they are trying to come off as great humanitarians.

How is it contradictory? Offering asylum but making it harder to reach said asylum tests the mettle and resolve of those seeking it. If you are just going there for the sake of mooching off, then the hoops you have to jump through would probably deter you from attempting it. But if you are going there for the sake of survival and some sort of a future, then you wouldn't give a damn how many rings of fire you have to jump through to get there.

In short, Germany only wants to accept those who are desperate and capable as refugees, the group of which that is easier to assimilate and integrate into society. I fail to see the problem here.

[Zoranon]

Border control doesn't mean sealing the border. Read the article.

In case of migrants it does, given that those tend to discard their passports, use you brain.

[Deleted]

Border control doesn't mean sealing the border. Read the article.

It means southern countries are going to be fucked because more and more will be forced to stay and wait there ...

But yeah, every sane person knows that Hungary is and was right from the start.

[PosPosPos]

What?! Other countries are suffering because Germany said to bring them in ... now they're closing the borders?! Oh Germans, you fix this mess or better watch out, you just majorly pissed other european countries the second time!

There's a upper limit of how many you can take in under your wing as any nation in the world. You can be as compassionate and humane as you want, but you still have an obligation to keep yourself afloat so you can help more people in the future, rather than be short-sighted and ruin yourself ignoring the bigger picture.

Asinine statements like yours are why you will always be relegated as the common rabble, unable to see further than what's right in front of your nose.

[Wells]

In case of migrants it does, given that those tend to discard their passports, use you brain.

No, its really doesn't. Reinstating border control here just means they can make sure refugees are coming through in the places and manner that the German government wants them to. This is best for everyone. It'll mean better security for Germans, less danger for refugees, and better data for the German government to work with.

[Deleted]

It means southern countries are going to be fucked because more and more will be forced to stay and wait there ...

But yeah, every sane person knows that Hungary is and was right from the start.

Hungary is abominable.

A country who decides if a person can stay based on their religion is primitive, immoral and barbaric.

We all know religion is false and that there is no God.

[Stelio Kontos]

We all know religion is false and that there is no God.

No "we" don't all know that, and let's keep the angstheism to a minimum or the thread will be closed.

[Independent voter]

Not sure why Germany isn't vetting these refugees. How do they know they aren't going to launch terrorist attacks?

[Deleted]

Also, didn't German leaders criticize Hungary for wanting to shut down their borders?

Ah the Germans have finally realised it was stupid idea to say - we will take them all?

[Revi]

Hungary is abominable.

A country who decides if a person can stay based on their religion is primitive, immoral and barbaric.

We all know religion is false and that there is no God.

What? You think that restriction is about which religion is correct?'

OT: Totally understand Germany here, they can only cope with so many arrivals at a time.

[Deleted]

The problem is that Germany has a self contradictory attitude to this issue.

On one hand they offer asylum to anyone who can make it to Germany, but they are also asking transit countries to halt the flow of refugees. This is absurd. They basically turned everything between Syria and Germany into some strange Hunger Games concourse. We'll try to stop you from getting here, but if you make it here, you are welcome.

If anything they are making the situation worse. And all this because the German government lacks any sort of backbone, and while they are aware that they are making it worse and that they are digging themselves in a hole, in the same time they are trying to come off as great humanitarians.

You know this is the entire western worlds approach to asylum - a sick game from a dystopian shit hole - and we call it the highest form of humanism...
End the convention on refugees today - as is, its just a sick fucking joke.

[Wells]

Not sure why Germany isn't vetting these refugees. How do they know they aren't going to launch terrorist attacks?

They do get processed. They just wait to process them until they're in a place where exposure and hunger aren't an issue.