A migrant cooks on a fire outside an abandoned warehouse where he and other migrants took refuge in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017. Hundreds of migrants have been sleeping rough in freezing conditions in central Belgrade looking for ways to cross the heavily guarded EU borders. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
The Associated Press
VIENNA (AP) - The interior and defense ministers of 13 European nations are meeting in Vienna on ways to prepare for a possible uptick in migrant flows once winter is over.
Convened by Austria's interior and defense ministers, Wednesday's meeting includes counterparts from the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo and Greece.
Some of the countries became arrival or transit points along the now-closed west Balkans route for the influx of hundreds of thousands of migrants looking for better lives. Others oppose resettling migrants already in the EU on their territories.
Austria was instrumental in coordinating last year's shutdown of the migrants' path into prosperous EU countries that began in Greece and wound through the western Balkans.
A migrant from Pakistan, center, talks with another while making tea on a fire in an abandoned warehouse where they took refuge in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Feb. 6, 2017. Hundreds of migrants have been sleeping rough in freezing conditions in central Belgrade looking for ways to cross the heavily guarded EU borders. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
The Associated Press
A migrant sleeps on the ground under a window of an abandoned warehouse where he and other migrants took refuge in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017. Hundreds of migrants have been sleeping rough in freezing conditions in central Belgrade looking for ways to cross the heavily guarded EU borders. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
The Associated Press
Two migrants watch a Bollywood movie on a mobile phone inside an abandoned warehouse where they took refuge in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017. Hundreds of migrants have been sleeping rough in freezing conditions in central Belgrade looking for ways to cross the heavily guarded EU borders. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
The Associated Press
Migrants from Pakistan's tribal area of Bajaur pray in an abandoned warehouse where they took refuge in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2017. Hundreds of migrants have been sleeping rough in freezing conditions in central Belgrade looking for ways to cross the heavily guarded EU borders. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
The Associated Press