Facing an influx of migrants and refugees from war-torn Syria and Iraq, Germany is instituting temporary border controls, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Sunday.
“The focus will initially lie on the border with Austria,” de Maiziere said. “The goal of this measure is to restrict the present inflow of migrants into Germany and return again to an orderly process upon entry.”
Germany is stopping train traffic to and from Austria for 13 hours, the Austrian Federal Railways said in a tweet. The moratorium on train travel between the two countries will last from 5 p.m. Sunday (noon ET Sunday) until 6 a.m. Monday, the railway agency said.
The announcement of measures by Germany came hours after more than 40 migrants were discovered alive inside a refrigerated truck in northwest Austria, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the German border.
The rescue of those migrants may have prevented a deadly fate if something had gone awry on their covert trip, but others were not so lucky.
Nearly 30 people — almost half of them children — were found dead off the coast of the Greek island of Farmakonisi on Sunday, the Hellenic coast guard said.
At least 125 people were aboard a wooden boat that capsized in the Aegean Sea, coast guard duty officer George Tsapras said. The coast guard rescued 68 people, 29 others swam to shore, and another 28 died.
Search and rescue efforts were ongoing, Tsapras said.
It is unclear if those on the boat were refugees or migrants, as their nationalities and points of origin have not yet been identified, Tsapras
Source – CNN
