Germany’s Merkel decries xenophobia amid EU fissures over migrants

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for European Union states to stand up to xenophobia and take a united stance on the bloc’s migration crisis, even as some members threatened to close their borders.

Austria and Hungary stepped up arrests of suspected people smugglers and rail officials stopped a German-bound train on Monday, stranding about 300 refugees on the two countries’, the APA news service reported. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, political leaders said they’d defend their frontiers, adding to growing urgency among EU countries over how to handle the flow of people arriving from Africa and the Middle East.

The crisis has escalated this month after Austrian police found a truck containing the bodies of 71 migrants near its border with Hungary, and scores of people drowned when their boats capsized off the coast of Libya last week. While Germany is preparing to welcome at least 800,000 migrants this year, other European countries have resisted, with some saying they aren’t prepared to accommodate Muslims.

“If Europe fails on this question of refugees, its close association with the rights of citizens threatens to fall apart,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin. “Europe as a whole must move on this. The current situation is not satisfactory.”

The right to asylum is a “foundation” of Germany’s constitution, and the government will form a “comprehensive” package to address the issue on Sept. 24, she said.

“What affects me is that we have such hate and such an atmosphere in this country,” Merkel said, after anti- immigration protesters clashed with German police earlier this month. “There can be no excuse for this.”

On a visit to Calais, a French port where about 3,500 migrants are camped out as they seek to cross to Britain, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called for EU states to better share the burden of accepting asylum seekers. He added that a distinction must be made between asylum seekers and “economic migrants,” who must return to their homes.

“All people arriving, whether seeking asylum or economic opportunity, deserve to be treated with dignity,” Valls said during his visit. “But we must be firm against illegal immigration, which we can’t confuse with asylum seekers.”

In Slovakia, whose neighbor Hungary has erected a razor- wire fence on its southern border with Serbia, Prime Minister Robert Fico said his country would help those who needed protection, but 95 percent were “economic migrants.” He added that the EU needed to pressure countries outside of the bloc’s visa-free Schengen area to stop the flow.

“We won’t assist this foolishness of widely open arms and sheltering anybody regardless of whether they are economic migrants or not,” Fico said at a briefing in Bratislava. “The government will protect the interests of the Slovak Republic” and it will “strictly distinguish between economic immigrants and speculators from those who are in real need.”

European leaders are struggling to balance their commitment to protect people fleeing violence with voters’ concerns about an influx of outsiders. A European Commission proposal to set a refugee quota for each EU country was defeated in July, as most members of the bloc refused to commit to specific numbers.

There have been 340,000 undocumented entries to the EU’s Schengen zone in the past six months, three times the rate of last year “which was already an exceptional year,” Valls said. EU interior ministers will hold a special summit Sept. 14 to address the issue, he said.

Fleeing conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East, thousands of migrants have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Greece, with most then traveling north through the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Italy and France accept the bulk of asylum seekers in the 28-member EU.

The Republic of Macedonia declared a state of emergency on Aug. 20 when thousands of people flooded across its border amid clashes with police. To the north, Hungarian police have detained migrants, and on Monday the government called for “unified European action” as soon as possible.

“Hungary cannot afford to wait for agreement on such unified action,” government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said. “Therefore Hungary will do everything possible to defend the Schengen borders and restore order there until a joint European decision is made.”

Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka called for the leaders of the so-called Visegrad Four countries – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland – to meet this week to draw up a plan to the crisis. Czech President Milos Zeman, who told the Prague-based tabloid Blesk said in July that “nobody invited” the migrants to Europe, called for the army to help shore up the country’s frontiers.

“Of course I would wish for the EU to strengthen its borders, but I don’t see any real action,” Zeman told reporters in Prague castle on Monday. “Therefore I believe the Czech Republic should take care of its borders alone and expel illegal immigrants, including with the use of the army.”

–Viscusi reported from Paris, Ponikelska from Prague. Contributors: Arne Delfs in Berlin, Radoslav Tomek in Bratislava, Slovakia, Zoltan Simon in Budapest and Boris Groendahl and Jonathan Tirone in Vienna.

This story was originally published August 31, 2015 at 8:15 AM with the headline "Germany’s Merkel decries xenophobia amid EU fissures over migrants."