Balkan countries

German broadcaster n-tv is speculating that migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe from the Middle East "might find a new route."

The television published a drawing according to which migrants could in the future move from Greece toward Albania, and then toward Western Europe via Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Croatia.

The righting alliance comprising 50 MEPs and one European Commissioner on Tuesday said the EU's latest resolution on Montenegro last week demonstrated double standards and has ignored the "corruption of Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic".

Turkey's Coast Guard has reported an eleven-fold year-on-year increase in the number of undocumented migrants discovered in the country's Aegean region.

Almost 8,500 refugees were found in Turkish Coast Guard operations in February 2016, 11 times more than the same month in 2015, officials told the state-run Anadolu Agency on March 1.

At least 30 migrants, including many children, have sought medical help after they broke through the fence on the Macedonia-Greece border.

To prevent refugees from going into the territory of Macedonia, the police threw tear gas and stun grenades. Nobody was arrested during the incident on Monday morning.

NATO allies have agreed to a plan for their ships in the Aegean Sea to help Turkey and Greece counter criminal networks smuggling refugees into Europe, NATO's chief said on Feb. 25, overcoming territorial sensitivities between Greece and Turkey.

Bosnia's Defence Ministry is ready to make available five military facilities to accommodate refugees from the Middle East if their nomal route through the region changes to include Bosnia, the ministry told BIRN on Tuesday.

The Western Balkans Investment Summit in London on Monday brought together the prime ministers of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia with investors to discuss the development of transport links, energy projects and privatisation.

Macedonia had closed its border with Greece to Afghan migrants, leaving a growing number of people stranded, Greek newspaper Kathimerini reported in its online English-language edition on Monday, citing Greek police sources.

Serbian authorities have warned Bulgaria it should step up border controls to stem the flow of migrants trying to cross its western border, BGNES newswire quotes Serbian police as saying.

Serbia has not closed its southern border with Macedonia to migrants, the Serbian Interior Ministry (MUP) told B92 on Friday.