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BEIJING, Oct.26 (Xinhuanet) -- European leaders have announced that they will increase the capacity of shelters for refugees traveling along the Balkan route. They will be making more space in existing refugee registration centers and setting up new ones to accommodate 100,000 people. This decision comes as the approach of winter sends night-time temperatures plummeting.
All along the Balkan route, refugees and migrants who have entered Greece by boat from Turkey head north, most attempting to reach Germany. On Sunday, the heads of 11 EU and three non-EU countries met to agree on new measures to ease the refugee crisis as winter draws near. They announced the EU would help Greece create spaces for 30,000 people at reception centers by the end of the year, with the United Nation’s creating 20,000 more. And more reception shelters will also be set up in countries to the north.
In return, countries along the Balkan route are being asked to register people. But countries such as Croatia say they do not have the resources to process and register new arrivals. And Balkan countries sought assurances they would not be left as buffer zones if borders further north were closed.
All countries agreed to start coordinating information. And Slovenia will receive 400 additional border police after 60,000 people transited through the country over the past 10 days.
About a quarter of a million refugees and migrants have transmitted through the Balkans since mid-September, and that surge is not expected to slow even as the weather grows colder.
The meeting addressed dealing with, though not slowing, arrivals as most new arrivals come via Turkey, and Turkey was not represented at the crisis meeting.
(Source: CNTV.cn)
