Balkan countries step up controls at borders

Countries along the so-called ‘Balkan route’, where hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers crossed in 2015-2016, are pledging not to allow migrants to cross this time after Turkey’s decision not to stop migrants heading to the European Union.

In a political climate that has turned to the right in the EU – with prime ministers from Hungary and Austria both pursuing a hard-line anti-migration policy – many countries are eager to demonstrate that migrants will not cross the EU’s borders this time.

Along with Greece, Hungary also announced over the weekend that it is suspending admitting asylum seekers at the two entrances at the transit zone on its southern border.

Greece pointed to the new influx of asylum seekers from Turkey, while Hungarian officials cited a possible link between the coronavirus and migration.

The ‘Balkan Route’, North Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Austria in 2015-2016 served as a corridor for hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers on their way to Germany and further north.

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