Germany Orders Curbs at Border in Migrant Crisis
By MELISSA EDDY, RICK LYMAN and ALISON SMALE

BERLIN — With record numbers of migrants pouring across the Hungarian border and rushing west, Germany, the country that had been the most welcoming in Europe, suddenly ordered temporary border restrictions on Sunday that cut off rail travel from Austria and instituted spot checks on cars.

The German move came just one day before European ministers were scheduled to meet in Brussels to discuss a plan to distribute tens of thousands of migrants across Europe, with many governments, particularly in Eastern Europe, bristling at being forced to accept more migrants than they wish to take.

The crisis is the latest, and perhaps thorniest, test of Europe’s willingness to work together to solve big problems amid rising populist, nationalist and Euro-skeptic movements across the Continent.

The restrictions put in place by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government was seen as a strong sign — if not an outright message — to other European Union members that Germany was growing weary of shouldering so much of the burden in Europe’s largest humanitarian crisis in decades without more help and cooperation from other nations.

For others, though, the concern was that if even the richest and most powerful nation in the 28-member union was showing signs of reaching its limit, how would Europe be able to find a path through a seemingly ceaseless refugee emergency?

When word of the new restrictions made the rounds at the main station in Salzburg, Austria, the last major stop on the rail journey to Germany, hundreds of migrants were taken off the blocked trains and to a garage nearby, the German Press Agency said.

A simple sign was posted on the station’s information boards: “No railway service by order of German authorities due to the German migrant crisis.”

Interior Minister Thomas de Mazière said that it was “desperately necessary” for Germany to limit the number of people coming into the country and “reinstate an orderly entry process” after two weeks that left the country straining to accommodate the new arrivals.

Although one of the proudest European achievements of recent decades was passport-free travel between most member nations, the rules allow the reinstatement of border restrictions in cases of crisis and national security, he said.

“This measure is also a signal to Europe” that more needs to be done, and quickly, Mr. de Mazière said. “Introducing temporary border controls will not solve the whole problem,” he said.

Also on Sunday, Ms. Merkel spoke with Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, who proposed a plan last week to relocate 160,000 migrants who are waiting in the main front-line nations of Greece, Italy and Hungary.

The proposal, to be discussed Monday in Brussels by the bloc’s home affairs ministers, includes 40,000 migrants covered under an earlier plan that collapsed when several member nations refused to accept mandatory quotas of refugees, as well as 120,000 more.

Leaders of several countries, including Poland and the Czech Republic, have said they still object to any mandatory quotas, but may be willing to accept more new arrivals as long as it is voluntary.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants have been surging into Europe for nearly two years from war-torn areas of the Middle East, as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Eritrea and elsewhere in Africa.

Many of them aim to reach Germany, but others try to get to Sweden, Britain, the Netherlands and other nations.

Previously, the route of choice was across the Mediterranean Sea from Libya. But with that path growing increasingly dangerous, a shorter boat ride from Turkey, to an overland route from Greece to Macedonia to Serbia to southern Hungary started attracting more people this summer.

Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, responded by beginning the construction of a razor-wire fence along the country’s entire 108-mile border with Serbia.

Mr. Orban has also promised a fresh crackdown against those crossing the border when new laws take effect in Hungary on Tuesday, imposing harsh prison penalties for entering the country illegally and allowing the building of “transit centers” right at the border where migrants could be held while their cases are being considered.

In announcing Germany’s new border restrictions, Mr. de Mazière also called for the creation of what he called “waiting zones” along the union’s external borders where migrants could be registered and wait until they are granted refugee status and assigned to a country.

Hungary’s government, which has taken a particularly hard line in the crisis, reacted warmly to Germany’s announcement on Sunday.

“Hungary understands Germany’s decision, and Hungary is standing by Germany,” Peter Szijjarto, the country’s foreign minister, said at a news conference.

He said Hungary welcomed Berlin’s decision, which he described as defending German and European values, adding that Hungary made a new proposal of its own on Sunday: calling for a Continentwide effort to defend the borders of Greece, the first stop on the migrant path.

The migrants who eventually make their way to Hungary usually begin their journey into Europe with a short, but often perilous, sea crossing from Turkey to one of the nearer Greek islands.

If European leaders could close off that flow, Hungarian officials said Sunday, the numbers moving through the Balkans into Central Europe would dwindle to a trickle. Advocates for refugees say that those determined to reach Europe will only find other paths.

Just how dangerous that sea crossing can be was evident again Sunday when the Greek Coast Guard recovered the bodies of 34 migrants, including 15 children, after their boat capsized in the Aegean Sea. An additional 68 were rescued, and 30 others managed to swim to the nearby island of Farmakonisi.

The land portion of the journey offers dangers, too. The Austrian authorities said they had saved 42 people on Sunday from a refrigerated truck near the German border, and arrested two smugglers. Just last month, 71 people were found dead in the back of such a truck near the Austrian-Hungarian border.

Germany has said it expects 800,000 migrants by year’s end, but has indicated up to now that it can handle the newcomers, and even welcomed their addition to its aging work force.

But the numbers arriving have continued to grow, and Germany’s humanitarian network is wobbling under the strain.

On Saturday, around 12,000 migrants arrived in Munich, with 4,000 more by Sunday afternoon. More beds are needed, Munich officials said.

And more migrants are on the way. Before Germany closed off rail traffic from Austria, Austrian officials said 500 migrants were arriving every hour at the main border crossing between Hungary and Austria, with 7,000 crossing that day before 3 p.m.

The city of Salzburg sent out a post on Twitter asking residents to bring blankets and camping pads to the railway station to help accommodate several hundred people spending the night there and in a nearby parking garage.

On the Serbian border, the Hungarian authorities said that 4,330 migrants were detained Saturday for crossing illegally, an increase of 700 over the previous one-day record.

收容難民吃不消了 德恢復邊界管制

德國窮於應付不斷湧入的空前難民潮，德國內政部十三日宣布恢復德國與奧地利的邊境管制。根據申根公約，締約國可自由進出申根國家，不須檢查護照，但德國決定違反申根公約，暫時恢復管制。難民湧入速度太快，德國十三日開始喊吃不消，表示應付難民能力「已達上限」。

德國內政部長德梅齊埃十三日宣布，德國將行使緊急權力，管制邊界。此舉將暫時阻止難民入境。巴伐利亞省政府已要求聯邦警察當局協助處理難民問題，媒體報導指聯邦警察部門預計派遣兩千一百名警力，前往巴伐利亞協助管控邊界。

奧地利國鐵宣布，所有通往歐盟鄰國的列車將自台北時間十三日晚間十一時起停駛。聲明中並未說明原因，也沒提到何時復駛。

德國經濟部長嘉布瑞爾十三日接受媒體訪問時表示，每天越界進入德國的難民數量多達數千人，已達德國能力極限 。

嘉布瑞爾表示，難民數量還是其次，難民湧入太快，「已導致省、市地方政府窮於應付」。

德國預計今年將收八十萬名難民，至今已收容四十五萬人。光是十二日一天，慕尼黑即湧入逾一萬三千名難民。十三日下午，再有三千人抵達慕尼黑。慕尼黑警方發言人說：「根據十二日的抵達人數，情況非常明顯，我們已達能力的最上限。」

嘉布瑞爾同時建議，德國和歐洲應籌集十七億美元的立即援助，提供在約旦和黎巴嫩最大難民營難民食物、住所和學校 。他並呼籲美國和波斯灣國家提供相同金額援助難民營難民。

德國聯邦運輸部長杜布林特發表聲明表示，此刻德國已有必要實施有效措施，防止難民如潮水般湧入。他認為應提供協助給難民逃離的國家，以及有效管制德國邊境，特別是外部邊境已失靈。杜布林特所說的外部邊境指的是土耳其與希臘之間的邊境。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/14/world/europe/germany-emergency-measures-european-migrant-crisis.html

2015-09-14．聯合報．A1．要聞．編譯王麗娟