The Latest: Austria could send soldiers to Hungarian border

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — The latest developments as European governments rush to cope with the huge number of people moving across Europe. All times local (CET):

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11:20 a.m.

The Austrian chancellor says the country’s military will be deployed to help police dealing with the influx of migrants on the country’s border if needed.

Werner Faymann said Monday that the government approved a request from the Interior Ministry for assistance from the army, the Austria Press Agency reported.

Faymann said the army will focus on providing humanitarian help inside Austria but soldiers will be deployed to help at the borders if required.

Austria is seeing a constant stream of refugees across the border from Hungary.

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11:15 a.m.

Greece’s coast guard is still searching the area off the remote island of Farmakonissi after a wooden boat carrying migrants and refugees from the nearby Turkish shore sank, killing at least 34 people, including 15 children.

Two coast guard vessels and a diving team were searching the area Monday for any more potential bodies or survivors. Merchant Marine Minister Christos Zois flew to the island to be briefed on the operation.

The boat sank Sunday in rough seas and high winds. The coast guard rescued 68 people from the sea, while a further 30 managed to swim to Farmakonissi.

Separately, the coast guard said it had rescued 1,429 people at sea in 58 incidents off the islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Agathonissi, Kos, Symi and Rhodes over the weekend, from Friday morning until Monday morning.

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11:05 a.m.

Austrian police say thousands of migrants are still streaming into two towns on the country’s eastern border with Hungary.

Police spokesman Gerald Pangl said about 14,000 people arrived at Nickelsdorf, which has been the main focus of the influx over the past week, on Sunday and another 2,500 in the early hours of Monday.

In recent days, significant numbers of migrants also have been crossing into Austria further south at Heiligenkreuz. Between 5,000 and 10,000 people are expected there on Monday, police spokesman Gerald Koller told the Austria Press Agency. He said that around 500 are arriving every hour by bus.

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10:55 a.m.

France is calling for reinforced controls at Europe’s borders — notably in Greece, Italy and Hungary — to deal with the influx of migrants and sort refugees from economic migrants.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called Monday for centers where the thousands of migrants can be processed, as well as a common asylum process.

“Behind this humanitarian reality is a European reality,” Cazeneuve told RTL radio. He dismissed calls from France’s far-right National Front to impose border controls between France and Germany.

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10:30 a.m.

The U.N. human rights chief is calling for “expanded channels of regular migration and resettlement” of migrants and refugees in places like Europe and beyond, saying that will prevent deaths and reduce human smuggling.

Speaking to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, Zeid Raad al-Hussein praised the “ordinary people” who have volunteered to help migrants and refugees in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany and “even — despite long-standing xenophobia of tabloids and some politicians — in the United Kingdom.”

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9:45 a.m.

Controls on Germany’s border with Austria have led to traffic jams at crossings.

Authorities in Bavaria said there was a roughly 3-kilometer (2-mile) tailback Monday on the A8 highway at Bad Reichenhall, near the Austrian city of Salzburg, news agency dpa reported. Regional broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk reported a 6-kilometer (nearly 4-mile) queue on the A3 highway near Passau.

Germany introduced temporary border controls on Sunday evening to slow the influx of immigrants arriving from Hungary via Austria.

Train services from Austria to Germany resumed Monday morning after being halted Sunday. The section between Salzburg and the German border town of Freilassing initially remained closed because of reports of people on the track, but police said they found no one.

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8:30 a.m.

European Union interior ministers meet for emergency migration talks on Monday a day Germany reintroduced controls at its border with Austria to stem the continuing flow of refugees.

The ministers will try to narrow a yawning divide over how to share responsibility for thousands of migrants arriving daily and ease the burden on frontline states Italy, Greece and Hungary.

Their talks in Brussels will focus on distributing 160,000 refugees over the next two years.

The arrival of around 500,000 migrants so far this year has taken the EU by surprise and it has responded slowly.

The ministers will confirm the distribution of an initial 40,000 refugees, but this scheme was conceived in May and some nations still do not plan to do their full share before year’s end.

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8:15 a.m.

Germany’s national railway says it has resumed train services from Austria after authorities ordered a temporary halt on Sunday evening.

A spokeswoman for Deutsche Bahn said services resumed at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT). She spoke on condition of anonymity in line with company rules.

However, the main Salzburg-Munich line initially remained closed between the Austrian city of Salzburg and the German border town of Freilassing because there were people on the track.

Train services were suspended for around 12 hours when Germany introduced temporary border controls Sunday evening to stem the tide of thousands of refugees streaming across its frontier.

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