Rifts Widen at Migration Summit in Brussels

Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told a meeting of interior ministers from the EU, Turkey and the Balkans in Brussels that the EU's migration strategy faced collapse, as differences over ways to deal with the crisis surfaced once again.

"In the next 10 days, we need tangible and clear results on the ground, otherwise there is the risk that the whole system will completely break down," Avramopoulos said.

But ministers on Thursday failed to overcome rifts on how to approach the crisis that has worsened since Austria launched an initiative to seal borders along the so-called Balkan route without consulting Germany or Greece.

Other Balkan countries have backed the initiative, leaving thousands of refugees and migrants stranded at border crossings, especially in northern Greece.

Disagreements at the meeting in Brussels led Greece to recall its Ambassador to Austria after Vienna presented its own plan, backed by eight Balkan countries, which Athens fears will effectively turn Greece into  a waiting room for thousands of migrants and refugees.

Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Slovenia have joined forces with five non-EU Balkan states to announce common steps to restrict entry to migrants.

The plan forged on February 24 in Vienna envisages fingerprinting new arrivals and letting through only people with proper passports.

Greece fears this means letting through only Syrian and Iraqi nationals while returning to Greece all the others, including thousands of Afghan nationals who are already being returned from the Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian and Macedonian borders.

Separately, Hungary announced a referendum on refugee quotas previously proposed by Brussels as a means of sharing the burden.