EU Migration Crisis: Border Controls Back

• 09.14.2015, 18:12
•  Europe,  World

Today European ministers have been holding emergency talks on plans to distribute migrants around the continent, after Germany reintroduced border controls claiming it could no longer handle its immigrant influx.

The matter is that last night German officials were halting all trains trying to cross the border from Austria to Germany’s Bavarian region allowing to enter only those with "valid travel documents" and detaining at the same time about 30 smugglers and 90 refugees,  The Independent informs.

Germany's reintroduction of border controls threatens to undermine the so-called Schengen system, which allows passport-free travel among many nations in the bloc. However, the agreement does allow for temporary suspensions.

"The aim of these measures is to limit the current influx to Germany and to return to an orderly process which is also necessary for security reasons,"  the Interior Minister of the country, Thomas de Maiziere declared, adding that the focus will be on the border to Austria first.

"Migrants must understand they cannot choose the states where they are seeking protection,"de Maiziere said, according to The Guardian, "Germany has shown willingness to help and this helpfulness must not be overstretched and this is why this measurement is a signal to all Europe. Germany takes on its responsibility but there must be a fair distribution across Europe. The border controls will not solve everything."

Predictably, the very first person to welcome Germany's introduction of temporary border controls was the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is building a wall on the Serbian border on the same grounds.

"We have great understanding for Germany's decision and we'd like to express our solidarity. The measure was necessary to protect German and European values," Orban said adding that together with some other eastern European leaders they would not accept a plan set out by the European Commission Chief, Jean-Claude Juncker, for mandatory refugee quotas, Euronews reports.

Let’s recall that Germany, Austria and France supported Juncker’s proposal anyway, which would see 160,000 people shared out across all 28 EU states. They would be allocated on the basis of a country’s size and wealth. 

However, whether Europe finally agrees upon this quote plan or rejects it, at least there should be a certain consensus between the EU member-states, as we can nowadays consider the unity of the EU to be even much bigger challenge than the migrant crisis itself.