German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for solidarity among European countries in handling the influx of millions of migrants from Africa and the Middle East, warning that failure to properly manage the crisis could lead to war.
Speaking to members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union party on Monday in Berlin, Merkel warned that Balkan states could be plunged back into war, the first time since the 1990s, if Austria closed its border with Germany, according to various media reports.
As neighbouring countries like Hungary and Serbia erect barriers to stem the flow of migrants, with Slovenia also planning to do the same, Merkel said such action would only "lead to a backlash," the Daily Express reported.
Alluding to the bloody conflicts that eventually dismembered Yugoslavia, she said: "I do not want military conflicts to become necessary there again."
In a speech in Darmstadt, southern Germany, Merkel said barbed wire fences along the borders of Hungary and Serbia "will build up fault lines" and may provoke new tensions.
Finland is also bearing the brunt of the migration crisis, with Interior Minister Petteri Orpo saying this problem in heightening tensions between ethnic Finns and asylum-seekers.
Orpo said the influx of mostly Middle Eastern refugees poses the biggest security threat to Finland, according to the Daily Express.
Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) admitted that despite the donations given by governments, charities and ordinary people last year, the United Nations still does not have enough funds to help the millions of people displaced by war and conflict, according to the Daily Express.
Antonio Guterres, the UNHCR refugee chief, said they received a record £2.1 million in donations by governments, charities and ordinary people last year.
But despite this, he said the humanitarian budgets are still not enough "to cover even the bare minimum."
Around 60 million people are now estimated to be displaced by war and persecution around the world.
What triggered this year's funding shortfall is the thousands of Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans and Eritreans arriving in Europe, Guterres said.
He said cuts made to the UN's World Food Programme earlier this year made "many refugees feel that the international community was starting to abandon them."
Guterres said the relocation of 160,000 migrants in Europe has been "far too slow." Nevertheless, he remains hopeful that the European Union can manage the crisis.
