UN Pact on Migration Splits Balkan States

Several countries lining the so-called "Balkan route" will be joining the United States, Austria, and Hungary in opposing the planned international-level deal on easing migration.

Bulgaria on Monday was the latest to say it would not sign the UN Global Migration Pact because it "jeopardizes Bulgaria's national interest", ruling GERB party parliamentary group chief Tsvetan Tsvetanov said, one day after Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said the decision should be left to parliament.

Once one EU state had expressed such disagreement, the EU as a whole cannot implement the UN convention, she claimed.

Bulgarian border police on Sunday announced a temporary restriction on people entering an area along the Maritsa River at the Bulgarian-Greek border after a recent increase in illegal migration in the area.

Bulgaria's announcement comes after four other EU countries, Hungary, Austria, Poland and Croatia, announced that they would not sign the UN document in Marrakech, Morocco, on December 11-12.

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which won't be legally binding, was finalized under UN auspices in July.

The UN pact addresses issues such as how to protect people who migrate, how to integrate them into new countries and how to return them to their home countries but the agreement does not stipulate any mandatory number of migrants to be accepted by a country.

In Croatia, the matter saw President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic at odds with the government, prompting her to announce that she would not even attend the summit in December.

"I thought the Marrakesh Agreement would regulate part of these issues, and in August I sent a message to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that I would come to...