“They have offered to increase border security measures by erecting a fence to create a safety corridor and to reinforce police patrols on the Slovenian side to prevent (unofficial) border crossings”.
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Earlier this week, Sweden – a preferred destination for migrants – reinstated temporary border controls, while Slovenia rolled out razor wire along its frontier with non-Schengen member Croatia.
“We believe that if there is a lot of investment in agriculture we can then take our youth into that sector to propel economic and social development”, he said.
Vice President Joe Biden will travel to Croatia later this month for a meeting of southeast European leaders.
Germany – Europe’s top economy which is expecting 800,000 migrants this year – had previously signalled it would throw open the country’s borders to Syrian refugees.
Chancellor Werner Faymann’s chief of staff, Josef Ostermayer, told reporters, “We are talking here about an ordered inflow and not a barrier”.
Merkel said: “I cannot unilaterally define upper limits… what we in Germany cannot do is simply determine unilaterally who can come and who can’t”. The bloc estimates that up to 3 million more people could arrive in Europe seeking sanctuary or jobs by 2017.
Such centers, “whatever we call them, will become de-facto detention centers”, AU chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said.
Officials are anticipating that asylum seekers may now turn to Albania and Italy as an alternative routes to more prosperous European countries in the north.
Small field “That patch of yellowing grass there, on the far bank – that’s part of Croatia”, a Croatian man, Petar, explained to new arrivals, pointing to a small field that was now behind not only a sign saying “Slovenia”, but the razor wire fence.
“We are just going to warn them that they have entered Croatian territory and tell them to remove the fence”. Refugees started crossing into Slovenia after Hungary fenced off its border last month. A helicopter flew above illuminating the area with a spotlight before the Croatian forces pulled back.
Slovenia denies that any part of the planned 80-kilometer (50 mile) fence is on Croatian soil. The two neighbors have been locked in a border dispute since the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
With Austria, Germany, Sweden and now Slovenia re-considering their border controls it means more thousands of refugee families could be stranded in the Balkans during the winter.
“If we don’t act on time”, Prime Minister Miro Cerar said, “this could cause a humanitarian catastrophe on the territory of Slovenia”.
“If Austria or Germany shut their borders, more than 100,000 migrants would be stuck in Slovenia in few weeks”, Cerar said.
Despite the influx and pledges of action, European Union nations have been slow to move. Relative to population size – Sweden has 9.7 million people – no other European Union country comes close.
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Over the first day of inspections, Sweden recorded no significant reduction of migrants on the same time period in the previous week, and only managed to turn back 30 individuals – who went away voluntarily. The government said the move would “bring order” to Sweden’s reception of migrants and make sure they are registered as they enter the country.
