GENEVA (AP) – The latest developments in the hundreds of thousands of refugees and other migrants passing through Europe on their way west. All times local.
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Leaders from the European Union and Turkey will be fine-tuning a plan to help Ankara cope better with refugees from Syria and Iraq and limit the flow of people leaving to Europe.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was arriving in Brussels Monday for talks with EU Council President Donald Tusk, Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Parliament President Martin Schulz.
Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said Monday that the EU wants to “have a contract of mutual confidence that is necessary, given the central role Turkey has played in the refugee crisis.”
Turkey hosts around 2 million refugees, many from Syria and Iraq.
Tens of thousands of people fleeing conflict and poverty have been crossing from Turkey into Greece in the hope of finding better lives in Europe.
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1:00 p.m.
A spokeswoman for the EU’s border agency says it is seeking hundreds of additional border guards to help in the task of identifying migrants that are arriving in Europe.
Ewa Moncure said Monday that Frontex appealed to EU and Schengen members last week to jointly provide 775 experts in identification and interpreters. They would be deployed this month to Greece and Italy, which are taking the brunt of the migrant wave.
The agents would reinforce the procedure of identifying people who qualify for political asylum, like Syrians and Afghanis, and economic migrants, who will be returned home. The current numbers of border guards are insufficient to meet the migrant wave of some 420,000 people so far this year. ___
11:25 a.m.
The head of the U.N. refugee agency says a “positive relationship between the Western and the Muslim worlds” is essential to overcome refugee crises like those facing Europe.
Antonio Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, says there is an urgent need to fight fear of Islam and reduce the lure of extremist ideologies.
He told his agency’s executive committee on Monday that financing has fallen short to handle “mega-crises” like those in Iraq and Syria and other crises in South Sudan, Burundi, Yemen and Libya.
He said “the humanitarian system is financially broke” and 33 U.N. appeals for assistance for 82 million people are 42-percent funded.
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