Balkans join U.S., EU in push to control migrants at borders

A volunteer holds up a baby as others help migrants and refugees to disembark from a dinghy Wednesday after their arrival from the Turkish coast to the Greek island of Lesbos.
A volunteer holds up a baby as others help migrants and refugees to disembark from a dinghy Wednesday after their arrival from the Turkish coast to the Greek island of Lesbos.

ZAGREB, Croatia -- Former Balkan rivals Wednesday pledged joint efforts with the United States and the European Union in protecting European borders from a record surge of asylum seekers. The pledge comes as fears arise that Islamic militants are among the influx of migrants.

In northern Europe, Norway introduced border controls, becoming the latest Scandinavian nation to respond to the refugee crisis.

Southeast European leaders met in the Croatian capital in an urgent summit attended by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to discuss the crisis that has seen hundreds of thousands of people, fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, cross the Balkans.

"The present dramatic migrant crisis poses an unprecedented challenge from both humanitarian and security aspects, requiring dialogue and agreement to better protect the EU's external borders and substantially alleviate migrant pressure on affected countries," read a declaration issued after the summit.

Without outlining concrete border measures, the declaration said that for lasting peace and stability of the once war-ravaged region, all countries should have the option of joining the European Union and NATO. The summit included all former Yugoslav states and Albania, of which only Slovenia and Croatia are in both the European Union and in NATO.

Biden's trip comes during a debate in the U.S. about whether to admit Syrian refugees after the attacks in Paris that left 130 dead and hundreds wounded. At least two of the militants involved in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks had passed through Greece.

In Washington, the House of Representatives has passed laws tightening vetting for refugees from Syria and Iraq, although the White House contends that the additional restrictions would effectively block people from those countries.

"The refugee crisis is restraining the resources of the countries in the region," Biden said. "It is clear there is a need to improve cross-border cooperation, information-sharing to deal with the flow of refugees, while stepping up the capability to counter the terrorist threats as well."

Biden's appearance indicates renewed U.S. interest in the region, which was engulfed in a bloody civil war in the 1990s as the former Yugoslavia broke up.

"The United States of America, and me in particular speaking for the president of the United States, has had an overwhelming interest in this region for the last 25 years," Biden said.

The refugee crisis is stoking tensions among the countries on the migrant corridor -- Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia.

Slovenia wants to limit the flow of people taking the route from Greece through the Balkans up to Germany so it can re-establish the normal functioning of Europe's passport-free Schengen Zone. Slovenia has started to build a razor-wire fence along its border with Croatia to aid these efforts.

In Norway, which is part of the Schengen Zone even though it isn't a member of the European Union, the government said late Tuesday that it will impose border controls starting today.

"The large number of asylum seekers and migrants is creating big challenges for us," Finance Minister Siv Jensen said in a statement.

Measures will aim, in particular, to prevent refugees from spilling out of Sweden into Norway, after the Swedish government acknowledged that its open immigration policies were backfiring. The largest Scandinavian economy has had to amend its budget to take into account the extra cost of absorbing the more than 350,000 people that Swedish authorities estimate will enter the country through next year.

"On Tuesday, it became apparent that Sweden is no longer able to receive such a large flow of asylum seekers as is the case today," the Norwegian Justice Ministry said. "They're working on a number of measures to reduce the flow to Sweden."

Denmark said Tuesday that the region is planning to step up coordination efforts needed to receive so many asylum seekers.

"The current migration and refugee situation is overwhelming," Danish Defense Minister Peter Christensen said in a statement. "That's why the countries affected need to collaborate."

Denmark so far has refrained from imposing border controls. But Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, who spoke to his Swedish counterpart Tuesday, said a day later that his government would "respond in the most appropriate way" should the actions of Denmark's neighbors lead to a surge in the influx of asylum seekers.

The country already is preparing to tighten its immigration policies, including stricter family reunification terms and faster deportation of candidates whose applications are rejected.

"My goal is to limit the flow of asylum seekers" into Denmark, Integration Minister Inger Stojberg told broadcaster TV2.

Like Sweden's, the Norwegian border controls will be temporary and affect ferry traffic between Norway and the European continent, the government said. Norway also will impose tighter so-called territorial controls along its borders to stop people who don't have the required documentation from entering the country.

Information for this article was contributed by Dusan Stojanovic of The Associated Press and by Amanda Billner, Stephen Treloar, Peter Levring, Raine Tiessalo and Niklas Magnusson of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 11/26/2015

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