Europe split on Muslim invasion on eve of Brussels talks
SOFIA/RIGONCE, Slovenia (Reuters) - European leaders traded threats and reprimands on Saturday as thousands more migrants and refugees streamed into the Balkans on the eve of European Union talks aimed at agreeing on urgent action to tackle the crisis.
Concern is growing about hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving in Europe, many from war zones in the Middle East, and camping in western Balkan countries in ever colder conditions as winter approaches.
More than 680,000 migrants and refugees have crossed to Europe by sea so far this year, fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania said they would close their borders if Germany or other countries shut the door on refugees, warning they would not let the Balkan region become a "buffer zone" for stranded migrants.
"The three countries, we are standing ready, if Germany and Austria close their borders, not to allow our countries to become buffer zones. We will be ready to close borders," Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov told reporters.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has invited the leaders of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia to Sunday's mini-summit.
The aim of the meeting is to agree "common operational conclusions which could be immediately implemented."
German media have reported that Juncker will present a 16-point plan, including an undertaking not to send migrants from one country to another without prior agreement.
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Amnesty International berates Balkan countries because Muslim invaders on their way to the Western Europe conquest are forced to sleep in the open
Amnesty International is warning of a humanitarian disaster unless countries on the Balkans migrant route come up with a plan at a summit this weekend on how to tackle the crisis.
The group's branch in Slovenia said in a statement Saturday that migrants are still often forced to sleep outside on their way to Western Europe, and that conditions will become more severe as winter set in.
The group says Sunday's summit in Brussels of several EU and Balkan nations must result in a solution.
Leaders "must not walk away from another meeting without a feasible plan on how to protect the needs and rights of the refugees," the group insists.
Slovenia: Thousands of angry Muslim invaders demand to be let go toward Western Europe
Thousands of migrants are shouting 'I need go' as they wait in an overcrowded migrant center in Slovenia to move on toward Western Europe.
Tensions were building again Saturday at the Brezice camp near the border with Croatia where a fire broke out burning down several tents earlier this week.
Migrants at Brezice are waiting for transport further west to Austria. Thousands are packed behind metal barriers guarded by riot police and armored vehicles.
The migrant flow has slowed down in tiny Slovenia which has complained it lacks manpower and equipment to handle the influx of tens of thousands of people crossing through the country.
The so-called Balkan migrant route switched to Slovenia a week ago when Hungary closed its border with Croatia forcing the tide to move.
Thousands of Muslim invaders arrive at the Serbia/Croatia border crossing
Authorities say thousands more migrants arrived overnight in the locality of Berkasovo in western Serbia on the border with Croatia.
They're part of the flood now trying to make to Western Europe via Croatia and Slovenia instead of Hungary, which has erected high, razor-wire fences along its borders with Serbia and Croatia.
Niklas Stoerup Agerup, a field protection officer with the U.N. refugee agency, said Saturday some 3,000 migrants arrived at the border with Croatia overnight.
But he says people are moving along on buses through the night. He says there's been a "continuous outflow of people as well as an inflow."
Austrian authorities say they're expecting at least 6,000 more asylum-seekers to reach a registration camp in the town of Spielfeld on the border with Slovenia.
Sweden: Another house intended for Muslim invaders goes up in flames
Swedish police say an early-morning fire has destroyed a house intended to house refugees in Eskiltuna near Stockholm. Two people are reported missing.
Spokesman Paul Edenstrom says the whereabouts of a couple who were listed as living at the address is not known, but they were believed to be in the building when the fire started.
Edenstrom said the fire is being investigated as a case of arson.
In recent weeks, Sweden has seen a spate of arson attacks on asylum centers or buildings to be used as such as an influx of refugees has surged. Immigration officials estimate some 190,000 asylum-seekers will arrive this year, second only to Germany in Western Europe.
Germany: Naive Merkel thinks she can integrate Muslim invaders into Western culture, send back those who don't qualify for asylum
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says it is important to try to quickly integrate a flood of newcomers into society, stressing the importance of jobs, education and learning the German language.
Merkel said in her weekly podcast Saturday that Germany had learned its lessons from the 1960s when a wave of migrants arrived as "guest workers." It was thought they would eventually return home but instead many have remained for generations.
She says less-educated refugees should be given training to help get them jobs, and that children should be quickly put into schools.
Merkel is proposing a 600-hour integration course to help refugees learn the language and culture, which could begin even before asylum is officially granted.
Germany's also implementing new rules to quickly send home migrants who don't qualify for asylum.
Berlin officials say they're hastily constructing temporary housing facilities in a hangar in the German capital's former Tempelhof Airport to accommodate a predicted influx of asylum-seekers.
The city said in a statement Saturday that Berlin expects 1,000 people to arrive this weekend based upon the numbers coming across the border from Austria.
It says 90 other facilities are all full, so firefighters, soldiers, disaster-relief workers and volunteers are busily erecting 73 large tents inside a hangar at the famous former airport, which was closed in 2008.
Aid workers and medical personnel are also being brought in to help at the new facility, which should house all 1,000 people.
Slovenian police had to use pepper spray to break up fight between Muslim invaders
Slovenian police say they have used pepper spray to break up a scuffle between migrants at a refugee camp near the border with Croatia.
Witnesses say several people have been slightly injured in the brawl Saturday morning at the Brezice camp, and were given medical treatment.
Novo Mesto police say that a quarrel between two groups of migrants escalated into a fight.
Tensions have been boiling at the Brezice camp where thousands are waiting to move on toward Western Europe. Tiny Slovenia complains it lacks capacity for tens of thousands surging through the country.
Slovenian police say some 13,000 people came into the country on Friday and early Saturday.
Croatia's PM: EU-prepared draft agreement on handling Muslim invasion is "unrealistic"
Croatia's prime minister has criticized a draft agreement prepared for Sunday's EU-backed summit on the migrant crisis as "unrealistic."
Zoran Milanovic said Saturday the draft envisages that countries along the so-called Balkan corridor would not transfer migrants to a neighboring countries' border without first getting agreement.
Milanovic said: "That is impossible, whoever wrote this does not understand how things work and must have just woken up from a months-long sleep."
Milanovic says the only solution for the control of migrant influx lies at the border between Turkey and Greece, where migrants first enter EU. "Everything else is a waste of time," he says.
Leaders of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia have been invited to the Brussels summit along with two non-members of the EU, Macedonia and Serbia.
Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania threaten to close their borders amid the "devastating pressure of the millions" of Muslim invaders
Bulgaria's prime minister says his country, Serbia and Romania won't become "buffer zones" for the migrant crisis and will close their borders to refugees if Germany and Austria decide to close their borders.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov spoke after meeting the prime ministers of Serbia and Romania in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia on Saturday.
He says, according to the Bulgarian news agency Novinite.com, "we won't expose our countries to the devastating pressure of the millions who would come."
All three nations are among those going to an emergency European Union summit Sunday in Brussels on the migrant crisis.
Slovenia "will act on its own" if EU summit fails to produce an acceptable solution to Muslim invasion
Slovenia's president says if Sunday's emergency European Union summit fails to produce an acceptable solution to the migrant crisis, the small Alpine nation will act on its own.
The state STA news agency quoted President Borut Pahor as saying "Slovenia cannot become a pocket in which refugees would be stuck if the Austrian and German borders close, because the country could not handle that."
Slovenian officials said Saturday that 58,000 asylum-seekers have entered in the past week. Tensions are growing and fights are breaking out at the country's Brezice refugee camp at the slow pace of getting transport to Austria.
Pahor did not offer details Saturday of what he would do, but other Slovenian officials have suggested putting up a fence along the Croatian border.
