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A new fence is being built at the Hungarian-Serbian
border on October 27, 2016 (AFP Photo/Csaba Segesvari) |
Vienna
(AFP) --- Austria on Thursday sent 60 troops to Hungary's border
with non-EU Serbia as Vienna's defence minister warned that the EU's
migrants deal with Turkey was "showing cracks".
Austria's
defence ministry said that the soldiers will not be armed or be
involved in intercepting people making it past Hungary's border fence
with Serbia.
Hungary
has been criticized by rights groups and others for its alleged
mistreatment of refugees and its refusal to take in some of the huge
numbers of refugees who arrived in Europe in 2015.
Based
at Hodmezovasarhely near Szeged in south-east Hungary initially for
six months, the Austrian soldiers are sappers who will help build
roads and erect containers.
Defence
Minister Hans Peter Doskozil said that EU countries needed to do more
to protect their borders because the bloc's accord with Turkey risked
unravelling.
"In
my opinion the cracks in this accord are starting to show,"
Doskozil told Oe1 public radio. "We have a time window in Europe
in which to organise ourselves" before the deal collapses, he
said.
"Therefore
it is right, and high time, that... EU member states recognise this
and confront this challenge, deal with the problem themselves and be
ready to act themselves."
Under
the EU-Turkey deal in force since March, Ankara agreed to take back
migrants who made it to Greece in return for being allowed to send
Syrians to the bloc in an orderly redistribution programme.
However
Greece has been slow to send migrants back to Turkey. Athens says
this is because many have applied for asylum which means that they
cannot be moved until the claims are processed.
In
addition Greece complains that the EU has failed to provide
additional assistance as promised and to share enough of the
thousands of migrants around the bloc.
Athens
wants to transfer some of the nearly 16,000 migrants on its islands
to the mainland but faces opposition from EU partners who fear a mass
resurgence of migrants heading north, Greek migration minister Yannis
Mouzalas said Monday.
