Germany re-imposed border controls yesterday after Europe’s most powerful nation acknowledged it could scarcely cope with thousands of asylum seekers arriving every day.

Berlin announced the measure would be taken first on the southern frontier with Austria, where migrant arrivals have soared since Chancellor Angela Merkel effectively opened German borders to refugees a week ago. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere added that this was also necessary for security reasons.

Berlin took the step a day before EU interior ministers hold an emergency meeting to discuss spreading asylum seekers around the 28-nation bloc. A European Commission proposal that each country should accept refugees under a system of compulsory quotas is meeting strong resistance from some countries, especially in central Europe. Slovakia said yesterday it would try to block the plan.

Germany, Europe’s largest and richest economy, has become a magnet for many people fleeing war and poverty in Syria and other parts of the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Police said around 13,000 migrants arrived in Munich alone on Saturday, and another 3,000 arrived yesterday morning. Now Germany has joined the list of smaller and poorer countries such as Greece and Hungary that are struggling to manage the huge flow of desperate people.

The European Commission said Germany appeared legally justified in reimposing border controls, which have been removed in recent decades across much of the continent, and urged action at today’s meeting in Brussels.

Quotas don’t make any sense and don’t solve the crisis in any way

“The German decision of today underlines the urgency to agree on the measures proposed by the European Commission in order to manage the refugee crisis,” it said.

Central European countries, however, reject the idea of compulsory quotas. Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said yesterday, “We are helping, we are ready to help, but on a voluntary basis. The quotas won’t work.”

In neighbouring Slovakia, Interior Minister Robert Kalinak said he had a mandate from the government and Parliament to try to block quotas. “They don’t make any sense and don’t solve the crisis in any way,” he said in a TV interview.

A Syrian refugee holding a baby in a lifetube swims towards the shore after their dinghy deflated some 100m off the Greek island of Lesbos, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Germany has halted train traffic from Austria, a spokeswoman for Austrian rail company OeBB said yesterday.

Meanwhile amid political bickering among European governments, the crisis claimed yet more lives – 28 migrants drowned off a Greek island yesterday when their boat sank.

The Greek coastguard said the migrants drowned off the island of Farmakonisi. In the space of 90 minutes, a Reuters photographer saw 10 dinghies packed with refugees arriving from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos, just as caretaker Prime Minister Vasiliki Thanou was calling for a comprehensive EU policy to deal with the crisis.

Further up the refugee route, 8,500 migrants entered Macedonia from Greece between Saturday evening and yesterday afternoon, the UN refugee agency said.

Earlier, Berlin made clear it needed help from EU partners. “It’s true: the European lack of action in the refugee crisis is now pushing even Germany to the limit of its ability,” Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who is also vice-chancellor, told the website of Der Tagesspiegel.

Most asylum seekers are refusing to stay in the poorer southern European countries where they arrive, such as Greece, and are instead making their way to Germany or Sweden where they anticipate a warmer welcome. In fact, many Germans have been greeting the migrants with cheers .