PTI
OPATOVAC, OCTOBER 19
Tension was building among thousands of migrants as they remained stranded in fog and cold weather in the Balkans in their quest to reach a better life in Western Europe, a day after Hungary closed its border with Croatia and the flow of people was redirected to a much slower route via Slovenia.
Tiny Slovenia has said it will only take in 2,500 people a day, significantly stalling the movement of people as they fled their countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. On Saturday, more than 6,000 people reached Croatia, but most of them were stuck in the country as well as in neighbouring Serbia yesterday,and thousands kept on arriving.
On the Serbian-Croatian border, tensions flared and scuffles erupted as hundreds of irritated migrants faced a cordon of Croatian policemen preventing them from entry.
The Balkan migrant route switched to Slovenia early Saturday after Hungary’s right-wing government closed its border to Croatia for the influx, citing security concerns and saying it wants to protect the European Union from an uncontrolled flow of people. Slovenian officials said they can’t accept 5,000 migrants per day as asked by Croatia, which is likely to cause a further backlog in the flow. Interior Ministry official Bostjan Sefic said Slovenia can’t take more than neighbouring Austria, which said it can accept 1,500 per day.
“If we would accept 5,000 migrants per day that would mean 35,000 would be in Slovenia in 10 days,” Mr.Sefic said, taking into account those who leave for Austria. “That would be unacceptable.”
Slovenia said it won’t allow entry to about 1,800 migrants on a train from Croatia after more than 2,000 people have already entered in one day. Some 5,000 other migrants will have to spend a cold night in a camp in Opatovac, eastern Croatia, before they can head toward Slovenia, the next step on their journey toward richer EU states, such as Germany or Sweden.
Across the border in Serbia, thousands of people have been sitting in some 50 buses since early hours of yesterday waiting to cross to Croatia. More are expected to arrive during the day.
“We are waiting here 4 hours on the bus,” said Muhammad Samin from Afghanistan. “The weather is too cold. We wear lots of shirts. The children are also in the cold. No food.”
The United Nations refugee agency warned that Hungary’s decision to close its border for migrants has increased their suffering and could lead to a backlog down the so—called Balkan route that goes from Turkey through Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia.
Turkey wants fresh EU funding to help tackle migration: Davutoglu
Turkey wants fresh EU funding to help tackle the migration crisis rather than the early disbursal of money already earmarked for it, and wants the sum reviewed annually, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday.
EU leaders at a summit in Brussels last week said they had agreed on a migration “action plan” with Turkey, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the figure of 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) had been discussed.
But speaking on Turkey’s Ahaber TV, a day after meeting Ms. Merkel in Istanbul, Mr. Davutoglu said that sum would have come from “IPA” fund, money already earmarked it as an EU membership candidate, and that Turkey wanted additional cash.
“The 3 billion euro IPA fund proposal is no longer on the table as we have said we will not accept it,” Mr. Davutoglu said.
“As for fresh resources, we’re talking about a 3 billion euro amount in the first stage. But we don’t want to fixate on this because the requirements may go up, and the assessment for this would need to be done annually.”
Ms. Merkel on Sunday offered Turkey the prospect of support for faster progress on its bid to join the European Union in return for cooperation in stemming the flow of migrants and taking back those rejected by Europe.
