EU states pledge to step up immigrants’ deportations

PanARMENIAN.Net - European Union governments agreed on Thursday, October 8, to step up deportations of illegal immigrants and discussed creating an EU border force among measures to cope with hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria's civil war, Reuters reports.

Underlining the havoc brought by chaotic mass treks across Europe's open borders over recent months, the German state of Bavaria threatened to break ranks with Berlin and send back to Austria migrants who cross its Alpine frontier.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose welcome for refugees has taken a toll on her ratings, insists she will not shut the door.

Her deputy said there could be no pulling up of "drawbridges". Austria's interior minister warned of possible border "riots". A policy document approved by EU interior ministers meeting in Luxembourg called on states to ensure more of those ordered to leave should actually go. Some 470,000 expulsion orders were made last year but fewer than 40 percent of them were enforced.

Ministers declined to put figures on future deportations.

Later, interior ministers were joined by foreign ministers from the EU, Balkan states, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon to review broader efforts to stem the flow of refugees and economic migrants from the Middle East, through Greece and the Balkans.

Attendees also agreed to work to end the war in Syria and stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan and also to step up expulsions and aid programs to persuade economic migrants to go home.