The Latest: Austrian refugee cap to be reached before summer

ORESTIADA, Greece – The latest developments in Europe's immigration crisis (all times local):

2:00 p.m.

Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner says the country's newly introduced cap on the number of refugees allowed into the country will likely be reached in a few months.

Mikl-Leitner has told German weekly Welt am Sonntag that the maximum number of 37,500 refugees would probably be reached before the summer.

The Austrian minister said Sunday that once the cap had been reached the country would either refuse to accept further asylum application or reject refugees on the border.

More than 1 million people from countries like Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan entered Europe last year in the biggest migration to the continent since World War II. They mostly went to Germany and other wealthy EU nations.

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1:50 p.m.

Demonstrators have gathered for a second day near Greece's border with Turkey, calling on the government to grant safe passage to refugees at the frontier.

Several hundred protesters traveled to the border town of Orestiada, near a 10.5-kilometer (6 1/2-mile) border fence.

Human rights groups and local activists say the fence and police patrols along Greece's 200-kilometer border are forcing asylum-seekers from Syria and other conflict areas, to pay hefty sums to smugglers and risk their lives to reach Europe by sea.

Two migrant boats sunk in the eastern Aegean Sea earlier this week, killing at least 46 people, including more than a dozen children.

The protesters chanting "Pull down the fence. Open the borders," are planning to travel in a bus convoy to the edge of a military area that includes the border fence, and onto a nearby border crossing point.