Europe: Moves to further limit refugee flow prompt concern

Rights groups and watchdogs have expressed concern over several countries' proposals to return asylum seekers to Greece as several European leaders call for refugee routes to be closed.


On Thursday, it was reported that Italy, Germany and Austria are expected to hold talks to seal the southern refugee route, while Germany's interior minister and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban separately called for returning more asylum seekers to Italy and Greece.

"We agreed ... that next week there will be a meeting of the German, Austrian and Italian interior ministers with the goal of taking measures to shut the Mediterranean route into Europe, to make sure that illegal immigration to Europe on this route is stopped," Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz told a press conference.

According to European Union rules, asylum seekers should apply for protection in the first country they enter. For the majority, the first ports of entry are in Greece and Italy.

In Greece, however, rights groups and observers say refugee camps are already overcrowded.
  [aljazeera.com]
   6/7/18