Migrants rest near a border line between Serbia and Croatia, near the village of Berkasovo, about 100 km west from Belgrade, Serbia, Sunday, October 18, 2015.
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Hungary shut down its border with Croatia to the free flow of migrants, prompting Croatia to redirect thousands of people toward its border with Slovenia.
“We don’t have any more raincoats”, said Dr Ramiz Momeni, director of the UK-based Humanitas Charity, helping out on the Serbia-Croatia border.
Slovenian authorities said on Monday that they had refused to let in more than 1,000 refugees arriving from Croatia after a daily quota had been reached, stoking fears of a new human bottleneck on the western Balkan route.
He has said normal border checkpoints with Croatia would remain open, though inspections will be tightened.
Slovenia had previously expressed concern about the situation after Hungary sealed off its border with the country this weekend.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has met with the Turkish Prime Minister to discuss the prospect of fast-tracking Turkey’s membership of the European Union if the country agrees to accept refugees.
Late on Saturday, Hungarian government spokesman, Zoltan Kovacs, said it was too early to say whether the measure, which he said serves the “interests of defending the Hungarian as well as the European borders”, was practical.
“The decision by Hungary to close its border has certainly added to the suffering and misery and the length of the journey for these desperate people”. Slovenian minister talked with her Croatian counterpart and asked for the Croatian side to cooperate and respect the number of refugees that Slovenia can receive.
Germany expects around 800,000 to a million people to arrive this year.
Until Sunday night 4,218 refugees had entered Croatia from Serbia.
Describing the new constraints in Slovenia on Sunday, its northern neighbour was said by Interior Ministry State Secretary Bostjan Sefic Austria was simply accepting maximum.
“There will likely be challenges when the method becomes slow or thousands of people have a backlog of individuals”.
Thousands of new arrivals a day have stretched Germany’s capacity to house refugees and other migrants.
A few 3,000 migrants entered Slovenia from Croatia on Saturday, around the same number who have arrived in Slovenia in the entire past month.
Across the border in Serbia, hundreds of people have been sitting in a few 20 buses since early hours Sunday waiting to cross to Croatia.
Night-time temperatures are expected to fall below 10C in many parts of central Europe in the coming days.
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The migrant route switched to Slovenia on Saturday after Hungary closed its border for the influx.
