The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Refugee tragedy causes crackdowns, backups
Austrian police check vehicles at Hungarian border.
Alison Smale and Melissa Eddy VIENNA — Europe struggled Monday with traffic backups on Hungary’s border with Austria, stalled trains packed with refugees bound for Germany and deepening policy confusion over the migrant crisis — punctuated by a warning from Germany’s leader that the European open-border policy was at risk.
The Austrian police, struggling to slow the influx of migrants from war-ravaged areas of the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa, began checking vehicles crossing from Hungary overnight, finding 200 migrants and arresting at least five people suspected of being smugglers.
Traffic stretched for miles on the Hungarian side of the border, but the Austrian authorities argued that they had no choice after the deaths of 71 migrants, including three children and a baby girl, whose decomposing bodies were found in a truck on a highway southeast of Vienna on Thursday.
The clampdown also extended to at least four Austria-bound trains carrying hundreds of migrants, which were stopped at the Hungary-Austria border over what the authorities described as overcrowd- ing, European news agencies reported. After several hours, two of the trains were allowed to proceed toward Vienna.
While thousands have drowned at sea trying to cross the Mediterranean and enter Europe, the mass deaths on the road in Austria shocked the Continent and reverberated around the world.
“We want to save lives and fight the criminal smugglers,” said Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Austria’s interior minister. Asked how long the controls would be in place, she said the period was “unlimited.”
The disaster in Austria highlighted Europe’s muddled response to a mass migration not seen since the end of World War II, with thousands arriving daily. Most of the new arrivals are crossing from Turkey to Greece, Macedonia and Serbia before entering Hungary and then heading to Europe’s wealthier northern countries — mostly to Germany.
The crisis has become a priority for Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who told reporters Monday that Europeans must uphold principles of justice and human rights in their response. She exhorted the European Union’s 27 other members to share the burden more equitably, warning that otherwise, the principle of unfettered movement among European Union member states, a freedom enshrined in what is known as the Schengen Agreement, would be endangered.
Hungary, however, accused Germany of encouraging the influx with what it described as a relaxation of restrictions on Germany-bound refugees from Syria.