“EXTRAORDINARY situations.”
That’s what the Hungarian interior minister said the migration pressure in Europe is creating in countries like his and Serbia, as well as others.
The main border crossing station between Hungary and Serbia reopened on Sunday, Hungarian government officials confirmed. The closure of the Roszke border crossing caused thousands of asylum seekers over the past week to try to travel through Croatia instead.
“The migration pressure which is falling heavy on Europe has created extraordinary situations in Hungary as well as in Serbia,” said Hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter. “We have devised a solution to this extraordinary situation together, and we attempted to resolve it together.”
Hungary has also fenced off its border with Croatia.
Nearly 1,600 migrants left the Croatian town of Tovarnik for the Hungarian border Sunday evening, according to the Croatian Interior Ministry. Croatian authorities say they are expecting more migrants at the border crossing.
The refugees invariably try to make it to Austria with hopes of continuing on to Germany or often to Sweden.
Migrants drowned, missing at sea
The loss of life has continued farther south as refugees and migrants forged ahead on the dangerous journey from the Middle East and Africa to Europe.
The bodies of at least 14 refugees were recovered and another 24 refugees are missing in two separate disasters in the Aegean Sea on Sunday, authorities said.
One boat collided with a cargo vessel off the coast of western Turkey, and another sank off the Greek island of Lesbos.
More than 2,800 have drowned or disappeared so far this year while attempting perilous sea journeys to European shores, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Hunger and misery are driving Syrian refugees out of tent cities pitched in neighboring Middle Eastern countries that have taken in millions of them. As international generosity has worn thin, the U.N.’s World Food Programme has had to progressively cut food rations for lack of funding.
Huge increase in numbers
Europe is facing its largest refugee and migrant crisis since World War II. People fleeing the violence in Syria account for the largest portion of those arriving on European shores, but there are many others on the move from African nations and elsewhere.
Nearly 475,000 migrants have crossed by boat into Europe so far this year, the International Organization for Migration says, more than double the amount who arrived during the whole of 2014.
Nearly 350,000 of the desperate travelers have landed in Greece, and more than 120,000 in Italy. From there, they try to reach the more sought-after EU nations for migrants.
European governments have so far failed to agree on how to share the burden of the huge numbers of people flooding into the region.
Kerry: U.S. to accept more refugees
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced at a news conference in Berlin on Sunday that the United States will increase the total number of refugees it will admit each year, from the current cap of 70,000 to 85,000 next fiscal year and 100,000 the year after.
Many of the additional refugees would be Syrian.
The United States had previously indicated it was going to increase to 10,000 the number of Syrian refugees it planned to take in next year. So far this year, about 1,500 Syrian refugees have been admitted to the United States. (CNN’s Ben Wedeman reported from Hegyeshalom, Hungary, Azadeh Ansari wrote from Atlanta. CNN’s Zeynep Bilginsoy and Jethro Mullen contributed to this report)
Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/21/world/europe-migrant-crisis/index.html
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