Merkel, Balkan leaders gathering in Vienna to discuss migrant crisis

PanARMENIAN.Net - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and western Balkan leaders are gathering in Vienna Thursday, Aug 27, in a bid to find a coherent approach to tackling the biggest migration crisis to hit Europe since World War II, AFP reports.

The meeting comes a day after Merkel vowed zero tolerance for "vile" anti-migrant violence and as criticism grows against the European Union for failing to coordinate a solution.

With the situation spiraling further on Wednesday, rescuers found 55 more corpses on stricken boats in the Mediterranean, adding to a toll of more than 2,300 people who have drowned while attempting the perilous crossing since the beginning of 2015.

Police fired tear gas in chaotic scenes at a Hungarian border town, and Budapest considered deploying troops to stem a record influx of asylum seekers.

Alarmed by the worsening dilemma, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged countries "in Europe and elsewhere to prove their compassion and do much more to bring an end to the crisis".

Hamstrung by a lack of a coherent European response, governments have undertaken at times contradictory approaches to the problem.

Hungary is building a vast razor-wire barrier to keep migrants out, while Czech Deputy Prime Minister Andrej Babis has called for the visa-free Schengen zone to be closed with the help of NATO troops.

Meanwhile Germany, which is preparing to receive a record 800,000 asylum-seekers this year, has confirmed it has eased the asylum application procedure for Syrians fleeing the country's brutal civil war -- a decision praised by U.S. President Barack Obama in a phone call with Merkel on Wednesday, according to a White House statement.

At least 55 dead bodies were discovered Wednesday on three overcrowded migrant boats in the Mediterranean, according to the Italian coastguard, on a day that saw some 3,000 others rescued at sea.

Almost all of the victims were found in the hold of a boat found drifting off the Libyan coast by a Swedish vessel. Media reports said they had choked to death on gas fumes.

The number of people who have died making the crossing in 2015 already exceeds the death toll for the whole of 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.