OPATOVAC, Croatia—The latest news as migrants fleeing war or seeking a better life make their way across Europe by the tens of thousands. All times local.
12:55 p.m.
Bishops from the Church of England are urging the government to accept more Syrian refugees, arguing that Britain’s response to the crisis has been inadequate.
More than 80 bishops have written to Prime Minister David Cameron calling for the country to accept as many as 50,000 refugees—30,000 more than already pledged.
They wrote that “it would be a meaningful and substantial response to the scale of human suffering we see daily.”
The bishops sent the letter to Cameron in September, but released it publicly after failing to receive what they described as an adequate response.
Defense Secretary Michael Fallon on Sunday defended the government’s actions on Syria, telling the BBC’s Andrew Marr program it had spent more than $1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) to support refugees in camps near Syria.
12:30 p.m.
The head of a union representing German police says he favors building a fence on the country’s border, something that Chancellor Angela Merkel has said repeatedly wouldn’t work.
Rainer Wendt, head of the German Police Union, was quoted Sunday as telling the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that “if we want to conduct serious border controls, we must build a fence along the German border. I am in favor of our doing this.”
Wendt argued that if Germany closed its border with a fence, Austria would close its border with Slovenia and said “we need precisely this effect.”
Merkel’s government faces increasing pressure to limit the influx of migrants as Germany struggles to house newcomers. Wendt argued that “someone must pull the emergency brake now—that can only be Angela Merkel.”
12:20 p.m.
Hungarian officials say no migrants have breached the fence Hungary has built on its border with Croatia on the first day since the border was closed.
Hungary decided to shut its border with Croatia to the free flow of migrants on Saturday, after erecting a fence protected by coils of razor wire, police and soldiers on long stretches of the boundary between the two countries. Hungary finished a similar fence its border with Serbia last month.
