Updated

The European Union is studying new ways to beef up border patrols in the face of an unprecedented influx of migrants crossing the Mediterranean and traveling through the Balkans.

EU presidency nation Latvia is struggling to persuade the 28 member countries to provide more funds and resources for the border agency Frontex, given broad opposition to creating an EU border guard system.

Latvian Interior Minister Rihards Kozlovskis warned Thursday that "this migration pressure is not going down, it's just increasing."

EU interior ministers were to discuss the creation of a special task force in the Balkans, where growing numbers of poor people are fleeing Kosovo into Hungary.