Austrian, Croatian foreign ministers talk migrants

Vienna, 14 February 2017 (MIA) - A negligible number of migrants is arriving in Europe along the Balkan route which was closed a year ago, but a big problem is the Mediterranean, where the number of migrants has markedly increased, Austrian Foreign Minister and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Sebastian Kurz said in Vienna on Tuesday after talks with his Croatian counterpart Davor Ivo Stier.
"We can be happy that we managed to close the Balkan route. At the beginning of 2016, we had 15,000 people coming by that route daily. After it was closed, we managed to reduce the number to less than 1,000. I think that's a big success but we must continue to fight against smugglers and human trafficking so as to further decrease the number of the people arriving," Hina news agency cites Kurz as saying.
"The key problem now is the Mediterranean, the Italian route. There we have 20% more people arriving than before. The numbers are rising on that route and I think we must change the policy there," Kurz said.
Anyone who arrives illegally must be stopped on the external EU border and sent back, he added.
If Europe wants to exist without internal borders, it must control the external borders, and the best way to do that is to have police and military control and technical equipment, Kurz said.
Stier said the mechanism of cooperation with the states on the Balkan route established before it was closed should not only be maintained but advanced. "I think that's extremely important for the Balkan route to stay closed.