Asylum seeker

Merkel said on Monday that Serbia was in a difficult position as a transit country for refugees and migrants and needs help.

"We know how many problems a country like Serbia can have because of that. That is why we want to talk in a friendly way about how to act in this situation," Merkel said in comments reported by Belgrade's Beta news agency.

Croatia is preparing to receive up to 3,200 refugees and migrants as part of an EU plan to share over 160,000 refugees and migrants currently in Italy, Hungary and Greece around the EU countries.

Bulgarian Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova will insist for urgent review of the legislative amendments aimed at imposing stricter sanctions against human traffickers.

Bachvarova stated this during a working visit to the border check point near the town of Malko Tarnovo on Saturday, private bTV station informs.

A total of 3,650 migrants reached Vienna by train on Aug.31, this year's biggest daily number, Austrian police said, after Hungarian authorities allowed people stuck in makeshift refugee camps to leave Budapest despite many not having EU visas.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Aug. 31 said the refugee crisis facing Europe is testing the core ideals of universal rights at the heart of the European Union.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and western Balkan leaders will gather in Vienna Aug. 27 in a bid to find a coherent approach to tackling the biggest migration crisis to hit Europe since World War II.

Germany on Aug. 25 said it had eased asylum rules for Syrians in a move expected to relieve pressure on southern European nations as thousands more migrants pour into the bloc.

Germany's interior minister led calls on Aug. 23 for a crackdown on right-wing militants and racists after a second night of scuffles between protesters and police outside a refugee shelter in an eastern German town near Dresden. 

Thousands of the around 200,000 Serbian citizens who sought asylum in Germany potentially face demands to leave the country and return to Serbia, the Belgrade-based daily Politika reported on Friday.

About 24,000 were already urged to leave Germany this year.

An increasing number of Serbian citizens have been seeking asylum in Germany - about 90 percent of them Roma - the Belgrade-based daily Politika writes.

24,000 of these asylum seekers have already been asked to leave Germany, the report adds.