VIENNA—Austria’s foreign minister called Monday for setting up mass holding camps in North Africa for migrants, a plan dismissed by his German counterpart as unrealistic.
Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel of Germany and Austria’s Sebastian Kurz both praised the neighborly ties between their countries and joined in calls for reducing surplus EU bureaucracy while focusing on values of the 28-nation union.
But Gabriel, on his first trip to Austria as foreign minister, was blunt in rejecting Kurz’s vision of creating mass refugee centers in countries like Libya or Sudan “sooner rather than later.”
German Minister of Foreign Affairs Sigmar Gabriel addresses the media after a meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz at the foreign ministry in Vienna, Austria on Feb. 27, 2017. AP Photo/Ronald Zak
