About 170,000 migrants have entered Slovenia since mid-October, when Hungary closed its border with Croatia. The plans for the fence means extra materials will be held in locked storage near the border, meaning barbed wire could be deployed within 48 hours in case of an emergency, reports Austrian daily Kronen Zeitung.
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The government had initially planned to install a 15.5 mile fence but “our Slovenian colleagues have asked us to not do this immediately”, said Mikl-Leitner.
With almost 200,000 asylum-seekers expected by the end of the year, Sweden is receiving more per capita than any other European Union nation.
“If access for refugees is limited, it could create a backlog in other countries such as Croatia and this might cause a humanitarian catastrophe”, Posel said.
Prime Minister Miro Cerar said a day earlier that his country expects about 30,000 new migrants to reach Slovenian borders.
Further east, Bulgaria was the first in the region to fence off its border with Turkey.
European Union leaders agreed on Thursday to invite Turkey’s president to a summit soon to enlist his help in stemming a chaotic flood of migrants into the EU from Turkish territory that endangers Europe’s unity and system of open borders.
Merkel, who faces pressure to limit refugee arrivals in Germany, said in a video address to local politicians from her conservative bloc that Germany is doing its bit to secure freedom of movement in Europe’s passport-free travel zone.
Germany has chose to extend temporary border controls until mid-February, its interior ministry said on Friday, as Europe’s top economy faces a record migrant influx.
The two states have long argued over the border at this spot on the Sutla, where the Croatian village of Harmica sits facing similarly-sized Rigonce in Slovenia.
Croatia sharply criticised Slovenia for unfurling razor wire along stretches of their border on Wednesday, as Europe continued to struggle to find a co-ordinated response to its biggest refugee crisis since the second World War.
“We decided that on the border with Croatia we will introduce technical measures for protecting the border and barriers, including a fence”.
Close to 10,000 refugees arrived Tuesday and Wednesday morning, according to police data. Cerar said that this would prevent migrants from crossing through forestland and more unsafe areas, where it is not possible to monitor the influx.
The talks in Valletta, Malta, came as Croatia lodged a formal protest on Thursday insisting Slovenia’s fence has entered its territory.
“Without effective control of our external borders, Schengen will not survive”, Tusk said.
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Fredrik Bengtsson, spokesman for the Swedish Migration Agency, said the agency is now picking up people by bus at the border and driving them to its offices, but “once they get there quite a lot don’t enter and get registered but disappear”. That hasn’t stemmed the flow of migrants, but German authorities say it’s given them more control of the situation. “For that reason as well we need to take another step in Denmark if we want to protect Denmark”.
