Interior ministers from six EU nations state that their countries have agreed to step up efforts to protect the Union from illegal immigration and target groups of human smugglers at the borders, according to ABC News.
Ministers from the V4 group of Central European countries, including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, were joined by counterparts from Austria and Germany at the summit in the southern Hungarian town of Szeged, 5 miles (8 kilometres) from the Serbian border.
Some EU governments are concerned that increased pressure from the so-called Balkan migration route from Serbia to Hungary requires a tougher response from regional countries.
Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan, who organised the summit, argued that migration was “a shared challenge” for Europe and that solutions should focus on preventing migrants from entering the bloc illegally.
We all are on the same migration route. We share borders, and the situation on the external border of the EU affects all of us.
Rakusan claimed that recent decisions by many European governments to reintroduce internal border controls in the visa-free Schengen zone have been unsustainable.
“We all want to have the Schengen area alive. We all know that controls and checks on the internal borders, it isn’t the right solution.”
Some 13 of the 27 EU member states have resumed internal border controls with their neighbours in recent months. Slovakia last month resumed border checks with Hungary to reduce the growing number of migrants entering the country after neighbours Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland imposed controls on their borders with Slovakia.
Part of the change was prompted by the spread of violence in northern Serbia in recent months. Shootings have become commonplace along the border with Hungary, where migrants looking for ways to enter the EU through smugglers have gathered.
In late October, hundreds of Serbian officers were deployed to the border region. They detained several people after a shootout between migrants left three people dead and one wounded.
At Monday’s summit, Hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter announced that he and his colleagues would discuss the EU’s common immigration and asylum policy at a meeting in Brussels next week. He claimed his country was unwilling to compromise on a proposal that would distribute asylum seekers across the EU to reduce the burden on countries hardest hit by migration.
Hungary cannot accept the mandatory nature of relocation. This is a question of sovereignty for Hungary.
