Balkan States Unite to Curb Rate of Migration

Foreign and Interior Ministers of Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia met in Vienna on Wednesday to coordinate moves on reducing the flow of the migrants along the so-called Balkan route.

The ten countries signed a joint declaration stating that the flow of refugees must be stopped due to security concerns, challenges to their integration and lack of resources.

The document states that the right to asylum does not include "choosing a country of preference" and calls for common standards for registration and entry criteria for persons "with realistic chances of gaining asylum".

It urges all EU nations that have signed the passport-free Schengen agreement "to refuse entry to those who do not satisfy the entry conditions".

Austria's Interior and Foreign Ministers stated before the meeting that Vienna's goal was to reduce the number of arrivals on its territory.

"We have to cut the flow of refugees", Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurtz told the German newspaper Bild on Wednesday, while Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner stressed that "Austria wants not only to reduce the influx of migrants pouring into Europe but to fully stop it", AP news agency reported.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, more than 102,547 persons arrived in Greece this year alone at the start of the Balkan route, most aiming to end their journey in European countries like Germany and Austria.

Countries along the Balkan route are already tightening controls on their borders to cut the flow.

On Sunday, Macedonia closed its borders to all migrants except Iraqis and Syrians, creating a bottleneck of Afghans, Pakistanis and others in the north of Greece.

Slovenia and...

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