Slovenia and Croatia, two of the countries along the well-trodden route, said late Tuesday that no refugees wishing to transit towards other countries would be allowed to enter.
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Serbia said the Slovakian move “practically closes the Balkans route” used by hundreds of thousands of refugees and other migrants over the a year ago, and indicated that it was following suit.
The ultimate test of the deal, however, will come on March 17-18 when the fine details are hammered out at the European Council.
The measures follow Austria’s decision in February to cap the number of migrants passing through its territory, which has led to a gradual tightening of borders through the western Balkans.
He added that talks were proceeding on return of 408 migrants, now stranded in a camp in Croatia, to Greece.
Following the announcement of the provisional EU-Turkey deal aimed at stopping the flow of refugees into Europe, EU members Slovenia and Croatia and non-EU member Serbia announced the implementation of new measures that would nearly completely block the passage of refugees through their respective countries.
Since 2015, more than million people from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq have crossed the Aegean Sea into Greece aiming to reach Germany and Scandinavia.
“It’s very important for Turkey to first take back all non-Syrian refugees but that’s not enough”, said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency.
Along with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, Merkel insisted on Monday that a mention of the route closure be dropped from the proposed closing statement of the summit in Brussels, European sources told AFP.
“I am deeply concerned about any arrangement that would involve the blanket return of anyone from one country to another without spelling out the refugee protection safeguards under worldwide law”, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
“The idea of bartering refugees for refugees is not only dangerously dehumanising, but also offers no sustainable long-term solution to the ongoing humanitarian crisis”, Amnesty’s Iverna McGowan said.
“This is putting into effect what is correct, and that is the end of the “waving through” (of migrants) which attracted so many migrants previous year and was the wrong approach”, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said.
“Clearly, Europe has made a decision to enter into a new stage of solving the migrant crisis”.
But securing a deal at another European summit next week may still be hard given the deep divisions that the migration crisis has sown in the bloc.
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But Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said on Tuesday the Balkan route was now effectively “shutting down ” .
