Presidents of Croatia, Slovenia and Austria express concern over migrant crisis

Presidents of Croatia, Slovenia and Austria on Friday met in Varazdin, northern Croatia, expressing their concern about migrants crisis on the Macedonian-Greek border after the closing of the Balkan migrant route.

There had been no other solution to an unprecedented phenomenon. After Austria received a large number of refugees, it was not easy to make decisions regarding the Balkan route, Heinz Fischer, the president of Austria said at a joint news conference after meeting with his Croatian and Slovenian counterparts Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and Borut Pahor.

Pahor said the key to a common European solution on migrant crisis was the relocation of refugees to European Union(EU) member states, including Slovenia.

The cooperation of countries along the Balkan route had kept Southeast Europe stable, despite huge humanitarian and security risks, he added.

Croatian President Grabar-Kitarovic said that an agreement between the EU and Turkey was the most important for the solution of the refugee crisis.

The main issue was cooperation with Turkey and the control of the EU's external border, she said, adding the cooperation of all countries was also important, so that the problem would not pass from one to another.

However, Fischer said that Turkey would not be given more lenient treatment regarding the cancellation of visa requirements for entering Schengen area. All conditions have to be met so that visa requirements could be cancelled for a country of 80 million people, he said.

More than one million refugees, mostly from Syria and Iraq, passed through Austria, Slovenia and Croatia to reach Germany and other European countries in 2015. Enditem