EUROPE-MIGRANTS/CROATIA PM-SLOVENIA BORDER PM says Croatia will allow passage to migrants, as hundreds wait at country's Slovenia border

Record ID: 135003

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/CROATIA PM-SLOVENIA BORDER PM says Croatia will allow passage to migrants, as hundreds wait at country's Slovenia border
  • Date: 19th October 2015
  • Summary: TRNOVEC, CROATIA (OCTOBER 19, 2015) (REUTERS) RED CROSS WORKERS AND POLICE STANDING NEAR AID BOXES AT BORDER CROSSING MIGRANTS LOOKING AT DONATED CLOTHES RED CROSS WORKER HOLDING BABY BOY IN COAT RED CROSS WORKERS AND POLICE STANDING NEAR AID BOXES RED CROSS WORKERS AND CHILDREN CHILD IN COAT STANDING ON RAIL AT BORDER MIGRANTS WAITING WRAPPED IN COATS AND BLANKETS POLICEM
  • Embargoed: 3rd November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Croatia
  • Country: Croatia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9ARG2QH43W12NAMLXJR0REV0X
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said on Monday (October 19) that closing Croatia's borders for migrants was "no solution" and that migrants would be allowed to pass through the country.
    His statement came after Hungary's closure of its southern border with Croatia on Friday (October 16) which caused backlogs at borders across the Balkans.
    "Obviously, yesterday we kept five to six thousand people [from coming in] on the other side, in Serbia. It's apparent that this is no solution, so we will let them through, we will send them towards Slovenia," Milanovic said.
    Hungary's right-wing government declared its southern frontier with Croatia off-limits to migrants at midnight on Friday, blocking entry with a metal fence and razor wire just as it did a month ago on its border with Serbia.
    Croatia responded by directing incoming migrants west to Slovenia, transporting them by train and buses in coordination with Slovenian authorities.
    But Slovenia said it could only process some 2,500 people per day before letting them resume their journey into Austria, with Croatia, in turn, limiting entry to migrants coming in from Serbia.
    As the flow of people continues unabated, more than 5,000 people are travelling the Balkan route every day, creating backlogs on the Croatian-Serbian and Croatian-Slovenian borders, as migrants travelling the route are battered by cold weather and heavy showers.
    Milanovic said Croatia, which said last month it couldn't cope with the massive influx, had no plans to build fences along the border and was determined to let migrants pass through the country on their way towards western Europe.
    "The question I asked at the European Council, in front of 29 leaders, was whether they wanted Croatia to do so [build walls and barbed wire fences] and I looked at Sweden, Germany, Austria, and they said no. And you've already seen what Berlin had told Hungary, the Hungarian government, that going about it that way only makes the situation even more difficult. So it's a clear message to Budapest and their friends, and to their errand boys in Croatia, how the biggest and most humane power sees this," Milanovic said.
    Meanwhile, Croatia's conservative opposition accused the government of mishandling the situation, and proposed sending in the army to reinforce border controls.
    At the Trnovec crossing on the Croatian-Slovenian border, Slovenia sent buses to transfer migrants to registration centres inside the country as aid workers distributed food to groups who shivered in the rain.
    The migrants had been brought by train to the northern Croatian town of Cakovec, where they got off and proceeded to walk towards the Slovenian border.
    But after exiting Croatia, they were denied entry into Slovenia, leaving them stuck on a stretch of road between the two countries.
    After spending most of Monday at the border crossing, and after a small group broke out of the fence put up around no man's land - only to be rounded up by Slovenian police on horseback - Slovenia decided to resolve the situation by sending in buses and transferring them to registration centres in Slovenia.
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