In migrant summit, EU leaders vow more capacity for arrivals

Jane Onyanga-Omara | USA TODAY

Reception capacity for refugees arriving in Greece and in the western Balkans will be increased to 100,000, European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said during a meeting of EU leaders gathered in Brussels to deal with Europe's refugee crisis.

Speaking during the summit of 11 regional leaders from the EU and the Balkan region, Juncker said that where national capacities fall short, "the EU civil protection mechanism should" provide more temporary shelter.

In Greece alone, he said, Athens promised that the reception capacity will be increased to 30,000 by the end of the year, with the United Nations providing capacity for 20,000 more, the Associated Press reported.

The mini-summit, held as winter approaches, included the leaders of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia.

More than 680,000 migrants and refugees have landed in Europe by sea this year, fleeing conflict in countries including Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea, the International Organization for Migration said.

Amnesty International said the leaders could not leave the meeting "without a workable plan of action" as thousands of people camp in night-time temperatures of around 41 degrees.

Many refugees and migrants try to enter the EU through the Balkans region of southeast Europe, including countries such as Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia.

In an interview in German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, Juncker said: "Every day counts…otherwise we will soon see families in cold rivers in the Balkans perish miserably.

"The challenge now is to slow down the flow of migration and to bring our external borders under control. We must also make it clear that people who arrive at our borders who are not looking for international protection have no right to enter the EU," he added.

Arriving at the summit, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras chided some EU nations for only looking at ways to keep migrants out and not how to tackle the crisis together.

"Unfortunately, till today, it was difficult to find a solution, because a series of countries adopt a stance of 'not in my own backyard,'" Tsipras said.

He said Turkey bears a special responsibility in the migrant crisis, adding that "at the end of the (migrant) corridor, there is an entrance. So if we will not be able to agree with the country at the entrance, I am afraid that it will be very difficult to find a solution."

Greece's coast guard on Sunday said a woman and two children aged 7 and 2 had drowned after their boat smashed into coastal rocks amid turbulent seas on the island of Lesbos, the AP reported. The boat carried 63 migrants at the time and 53 of the passengers were rescued.

The coast guard said that, based on information from other passengers, another seven were missing.

John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International director for Europe and Central Asia, said: "As winter looms, the sight of thousands of refugees sleeping rough as they make their way through Europe represents a damning indictment of the European Union's failure to offer a forward thinking and coordinated response to the refugee crisis.

"The EU has the mechanisms and, collectively, the money to ensure adequate reception conditions to all arriving refugees and migrants; these must be used to end the march of misery being endured by hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants."

Contributing: Greg Toppo, USA TODAY