Refugee children enter a primary school in Athens during the first day of lessons under the new refugee schooling program, on Monday, Oct. 10, 2016. More than 60,000 refugees are stranded in Greece due to European border closure. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
Republished October 10, 2016 - 9:11 AM
Original Publication Date October 10, 2016 - 6:05 AM
PARIS - The Latest on the influx of asylum seekers and migrants in Europe (all times local):
6:10 p.m.
Slovakia's president says he believes a proposal by some European Union members to receive migrants on a voluntary basis is a "dead policy," saying EU members have a "moral obligation" to accept refugees.
Andrej Kiska also said the solution of taking a limited numbers of migrants is "an unhappy solution."
He noted that Romania and Slovakia both have a border with Ukraine, and a crisis there could result in "hundreds of thousands of migrants on Slovak territory from Ukraine (and) we would ask other countries for solidarity ... and we have to behave in the same way."
His position is in contrast to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has said he is opposed to migrant quotas.
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6 p.m.
French officials say an Eritrean migrant has died after being hit by a driver on a highway near Calais.
Local authorities in the port city said that another migrant from Eritrea was slightly injured in the incident that occurred on Sunday evening on an interchange.
The northern department prefecture says that the driver hit the two migrants while trying to avoid objects placed on the highway by a group of about 50 people who slowed down traffic as they tried to climb on to trucks heading toward Britain. Authorities in Calais said the driver fled the scene because he was attacked by migrants after the incident but reported it to border police at the Channel Tunnel.
The Eritrean was the 14th migrant killed in the Calais area this year.
The French government has announced it will shut down the slum-like camp in Calais where about 10,000 migrants are leaving by the end of the year.
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3:05 p.m.
A spokesman for Britain's prime minister says the country is working with France on possibly accepting some refugee children with relatives in the U.K.
France's interior minister says Britain has a "moral duty" to take in all children with family links to the U.K. who are living in a border refugee camp on the French side of the English Channel.
Bernard Cazeneuve made the comments ahead of a London meeting with his counterpart, Amber Rudd.
Greg Swift, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May, says Britain and France were working together "to identify children who are vulnerable that we can help and we can bring into this country."
He says: "It's important that that work is done speedily, but it's also important that it's done in the best interests of the children who are involved. We are working very closely with French counterparts to speed up the process and we're hoping to make progress in the weeks ahead."
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3 p.m.
A small group of protesters has blocked access to a primary school near Thessaloniki, where children from a nearby refugee camp were due to start lessons under a new refugee schooling program.
Police said they were called to the school in the village of Profitis, some 35 kilometres (22 miles) from Thessaloniki, after about 20 people padlocked the school gates Monday.
Police escorted the 30 or more refugee children, who arrived for their first day of classes long after the protest had started, through another entrance without incident.
Although a small number of parents' associations elsewhere in Greece had voiced opposition to refugee children using their own children's schools after the end of classes, no other protests were reported.
More than 60,000 refugees are stranded in Greece due to European border closures.
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2:55 p.m.
France's interior minister says Britain has a "moral duty" to take in all children with family links to the U.K. who are living in a border refugee camp on the French side of the English Channel.
Bernard Cazeneuve made the comments on RTL radio Monday, ahead of a London meeting with his counterpart, Amber Rudd.
Cazeneuve said he is "solemnly asking the U.K. to fulfil its moral duty" to take in "several hundred isolated minors with family in Britain."
The London meeting will address the closure of the slum-like camp in Calais that's become a flashpoint in Europe's migrant crisis.
Thousands of migrants fleeing war and hardship from countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have reached the port town in the hope of making it to Britain.
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11:30 a.m.
France's interior minister says Britain has a "moral duty" to take in all children with family links to the UK who are living in a border refugee camp on the French side of the English Channel.
Bernard Cazeneuve made the comments on RTL radio Monday, ahead of a London meeting with his counterpart, Amber Rudd.
Cazeneuve said he is "solemnly asking the UK to fulfil its moral duty" to take in "several hundred isolated minors with family in Britain."
The London meeting will address the closure of the slum-like camp in Calais that's become a flashpoint in Europe's migrant crisis.
Thousands of migrants fleeing war and hardship from countries such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan have reached the port town in the hope of making it to Britain.
News from © The Associated Press, 2016