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Hungary rejects EU action and quota for migrants

BERLIN — Germany on Friday failed to persuade Hungary and three other central European partners to accept joint EU action and a quota to distribute migrants, many of them refugees from the Middle East.

The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, using blunt language that indicated Berlin might be losing patience, called the crisis “the greatest challenge the European Union has faced in its history.”

Up to 40,000 people might arrive this weekend, he said — double the total warmly welcomed in an outpouring of emotion last Saturday and Sunday.

The new figures came as questions mounted about the wisdom of throwing open the borders last weekend, in a humanitarian gesture that was described as a one-time offer, but which appears to have encouraged more asylum-seekers to join the migrant trail.

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In an indication that the government was troubled about maintaining control, Ursula von der Leyen, Germany’s defense minister, announced that 4,000 troops were on standby — a measure more often used to preserve order in natural disasters.

Steinmeier stressed that Germany now expects 800,000 migrants to arrive this year, and added, “None of these will be taken in by others, so I ask for understanding, that we discuss not only those who are already here, but a fair quota of distribution of those who are still on the way.”

His statement during talks in Prague with Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and Polish counterparts suggested that neither he nor the foreign minister of Luxembourg, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, persuaded the former Communist countries, which have not been immigrant destinations, to adopt quotas to house 160,000 migrants as suggested this week by the European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker.

The Prague talks were held in anticipation of a meeting Monday of European interior ministers to discuss the Juncker proposals, and there were indications Friday that heads of state and government might have to hold a summit meeting if no progress is made then.

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Officials in Berlin, speaking on condition of anonymity as they groped for a solution, even mentioned using majority voting — and not the traditional consensus — to decide the matter.

That would be highly unusual in an affair so central to Europe’s destiny.

The harsh response to migrants in some countries in Eastern and Central Europe has spurred debate about why many in former Communist countries, which themselves spent four decades craving liberty, are in some cases unsympathetic, and even downright hostile, to those fleeing war.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary reiterated his criticism of immigrants Friday, and warned that his country would take an even harder line.

“They have seized railway stations, refused to give fingerprints, failed to cooperate, and are unwilling to go to places where they would get food, water, accommodation, and medical care,” Orban said after a meeting with Manfred Weber, chairman of the conservative European People’s Party in the European Parliament.

Tougher laws on immigration will go into effect Tuesday, Orban said, and migrants who cross the border illegally will be arrested.

The United Nations on Friday gave qualified support to the Juncker plan. It “would go a long way” toward addressing the crisis, William Spindler, a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, told reporters in Geneva, but he added that it was still insufficient.

“Our estimates indicate even higher needs,” Spindler said, “but the focus must now be on ensuring all member states take part in this initiative, and that it is swiftly implemented.”

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Elsewhere on Friday, the Austrian railway said there would be no regional traffic between Austria and Hungary this weekend, after Austria stopped rail service across the border with Hungary due to immigrants streaming in.

That prompted several groups of immigrants who had arrived from Hungary to start marching toward Vienna, according to Helmut Marban, a spokesman for the police in the eastern Austrian province of Burgenland.

The main highway in the direction of Vienna was closed at least for some hours Friday because of the danger of immigrants marching along the road.

The Geneva-based International Organization for Migration said that in Geneva, a record 432,761 immigrants had crossed the Mediterranean already this year, compared with 197,940 people crossing in all of 2014, Reuters reported.

The situation also continued to deteriorate in Macedonia, where authorities are scrambling to find ways to cope with an immense increase in the number of migrants traveling across the country.

More than 11,000 migrants entered the country in a 24-hour period that ended Friday, according to the United Nations refugee agency, and the number was expected to remain similarly high during the next few days.

Despite the challenges facing the country, a proposal Thursday by Nikola Poposki, Macedonia’s minister of foreign affairs, to follow Hungary’s example of building a fence along its border was met with harsh criticism from domestic civil organizations and political parties.

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