The Latest: EU approves new border and coast guard

VIENNA – The Latest on the flow of migrants into Europe (all times local):

1:55 p.m.

The European Union has agreed on a new border and coast guard to better manage migrant arrivals after more than a million people came to the EU in search of jobs or sanctuary last year.

Dutch Migration Minister Klaas Dijkhoff said Wednesday that with the move “we have more control over migration streams and we enlarge the safety of our citizens.”

The Netherlands currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency and chaperoned the border guard plan through.

The border and coast guard will be built up from the EU’s border management agency Frontex.

The EU hopes it will strengthen external borders, which have proved particularly porous around Italy and Greece, and ensure that Europe’s passport-free travel area functions correctly.

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11 a.m.

Austrian police are noting an increased number of human smuggling attempts in sealed trucks, with two cases involving a total of 10 people this week alone.

Police say they found five Iraqis including two infants near the border to Slovenia on Tuesday in a Turkish truck after the driver alerted them to noises from the vehicle. Four Pakistanis and an Afghan citizen were discovered in a Bosnian truck in the same region the day before, again after the driver heard noises.

Vehicles with lead seals coming from outside the EU are normally opened only when they reach their destinations. Police describe such smuggling attempts as an effort to circumvent the February closing of the West Balkans route used by hundreds of thousands of people seeking better lives in Europe.