Hungary prevents refugee flow with 175-kiloeter long fence while Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Norway continue imposing emergency border controls for three more months
Hungary has built a 4-metre high, 175-kilometer long barbed-wire fence along its border with Serbia to stem the flow of immigrants into the country.
The fence is aimed at preventing the refugees from entering Western Europe.
Meanwhile, European Union envoys agreed to extend emergency border controls inside the bloc's free-travel zone for another three months to mid-May, as immigration and security continued to dominate the political agenda.
The Schengen zone of open borders collapsed as about 1.5 million refugees and migrants arrived in the bloc in 2015 and 2016, leaving the EU scrambling to ensure security and provide for the people.
Germany, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Norway started imposing the emergency border controls from September, 2015, and got the go-ahead on Wednesday to keep them in place for three more months.
In November 2016, a Hungarian court sentenced a refugee protesting the construction of the wall on the Serbian-Hungarian border to 10 years. However, the European Union decided to remain silent and did not take any action.
Another scandal was revealed in statements from Greek Immigration Policy Minister Ioannis Mouzalas. He claimed that Belgium told his country to “push migrants back in the sea“.
Turkey struck a deal with the EU in November 2016 to prevent migrants from traveling to Europe in return for 3 billion euros in cash, a deal to remove visa restrictions for Turkish citizens and renewed talks on joining the 28-nation bloc.
However, the EU broke its promise and declined to pay the money earmarked for refugees in Turkey.
In November 2016, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned the EU that Turkey may open its border gates.
More than 3 million Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey from the civil war in their country, now in its sixth year.
Turkey is the world's biggest host of refugees, amid the greatest global movement of refugees ever recorded.
Millions have fled Syria and more than 600,000 people have been killed in the ongoing conflict.
