The European Union
\nkeeps looking for solutions to solve the refugee crisis, the most serious since
\nthe end of the second world war. The European Commission President, Jean Claude
\nJuncker, called for an emergency mini-summit on migration in the Western
\nBalkans on Sunday. The meeting was attended by heads of state and government
\nfrom eight EU countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary,
\nRomania and Slovenia, plus another three countries that are not members of the
\nunion, namely Albania, Macedonia and Serbia. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After 7 hours of talks, the
\nparticipants set up an action plan on 17 items, the most important of which
\nrefers to the creation of 100,000 places for refugees, with the help of the UN.
\nHalf of them will be set up in Greece, the first leg of the migrants’ Balkan
\nroute, and the rest in the Western Balkan countries. The Athens authorities
\nhave agreed to add 30,000 accommodation places for refugees, by the end of the
\nyear, with support from the High UN Commissioner’s Office for Refugees. In
\nthe second stage, another 20,000 accommodation places will be ensured in host
\nfamilies in Greece, and the rents will be subsidized by the UN
\nHigh Commissioner’s Office for Refugees. The rest of 50,000 will be allocated among the
\ncountries along the Western Balkans route used by the migrants, also under UN’s
\ncoordination. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Another decision made at the summit was to deploy 400 police
\nofficers in Slovenia, a country which is seriously affected by the wave of
\nmigrants of late, following Hungary’s decision to close its borders with
\nCroatia. The plan also provides for boosting efforts for the return of those
\npeople who need international protection and to boost cooperation in the
\nprocess of returning refugees to countries such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh,
\nIraq and Pakistan. The participant countries also agreed not to let immigrants
\nenter a neighboring country without a previous agreement on that. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The President
\nof the European Commission said that the Balkan countries should start
\nregistering the migrants that reach
\ntheir borders. Improving the daily exchange of information was another measure
\nthat the participants agreed upon, as well as tracking migrants along the
\nWestern Balkan route and assessing the support needed for these countries. The
\nplan also focuses on a more efficient fight against human trafficking and
\ntraffickers, and on strengthening such actions with the help of the Interpol,
\nFrontex and Europol. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The EU keeps looking for solutions to the refugee crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[30950,38204,29397,29207,38205,31502],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-65794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-balkans","tag-ec-summit","tag-jean-claude-juncker","tag-migration","tag-refugee-issue","tag-romanias-president-klaus-iohannis"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n