Migrant crisis brings Croatia to brink of collapse

18 settembre 2015

2 min di lettura

(AGI) Rome, Sept 14 - A four-year-old girl has drowned in ashipwreck off the coast of Turkey, while a Syrian man waselectrocuted to death on the roof of a goods train in theEurotunnel. Meanwhile, the arrival of more than 13,000 migrantsfrom Serbia within a 24-hour period has brought Croatia to thebrink of collapse. The government in Zagreb has announced thatit cannot and will not accept thousands more migrants, beingunable to register or shelter them. They will be giventemporary help, said Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic, andchannelled towards Hungary. Croatia is not a "migrant hotspot",he said, but a country with a head as well as a heart. OnFriday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced thatbuilding had begun on the new 41-kilometre frontier barrierbetween the two countries. Some 600 soldiers are engaged in thetask, their number expected to rise to 1,800 by Sunday. The EUposted the latest figures on Friday: 213,000 applications forasylum between April and June, up 85 percent on the same periodin 2014. Germany's Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier haswarned the Eastern bloc countries, who are opposed to mandatorymigrant quotas, that a majority decision might have to beimposed. The latest tragedy at sea took place off the coast ofCesme, in Turkey's western Smyrna province. The coastguardmanaged to save the other 14 Syrian migrants, including eightchildren, who were aboard the overturned boat. The death of theSyrian electrocuted in the Channel Tunnel brings the number ofmigrants who have died attempting to reach the UK from Franceto 10. Meanwhile the Libyan coastguard has arrested 124migrants, including eight women, about to embark for Europefrom Gasr Qarabulli, once the Italian colony known asCastelverde, 70 miles east of Tripoli and one of the mostpopular departure points for Libyan people smugglers. The masscapture was made on the basis of so-called 'information' -probably a tip-off. Two Syrian citizens have been arrested inEindhoven, Southern Holland, accused of organising a covertnetwork enabling several hundred Syrians to enter Communityterritory illegally. (AGI).