Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic (R) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (Photo: AFP)
(VOVworld) - The European Union will help Hungary and the western Balkan countries struggling with an influx of migrants. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic Wednesday that refugees were increasingly seeking a route into Europe through the western Balkans.
The number of migrants and refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia, travelling overland through the Balkans on their way to EU, has dramatically increased in recent years.
At the meeting, both Merkel and Vucic said that Hungarian authorities had announced plans to build a barrier that would run all the way along the 175-kilometre border with Serbia, in order to keep out migrants.
Earlier in June, EU leaders accepted measures to cope with the immigrant crisis in the Mediterranean Sea by re-allocating 60,000 asylum seekers and immigrants, but could not decide on the quota to be received by each nation.