More Than 5000 Migrants Enter Croatia

Most will continue on to Germany and Austria, the preferred final destination of most refugees, the majority of whom are fleeing the war in Syria.

Hungary says it has temporarily reinstated border controls at its frontiers with Slovenia to prevent migrants from entering the county in an unrestricted manner.

Slovenia has said it could handle up to 8000 refugees crossing through on their way to Austria, which has also reinforced its border ahead of the anticipated rise in the numbers.

It closed in 2011and had received a make-over to be ready to house refugees.

“We have been in cold since two in the morning in Serbia”, said Omar Thaqfa, 33, from Mosul in Iraq.

“We can go home soon at last, it’s been tough work”, a prison guard tells AFP next to the barrier in Zakany where he and a dozen colleagues wait for the final arrivals from Croatia.

The number of migrants camping in the French port of Calais before attempting to get to the United Kingdom has doubled to 6,000, officials say. On Saturday, twelve people, including four children and an infant, drowned off the coast of Turkey while trying to reach Lesbos in Greece.

There was no immediate information of the nationalities of the migrants.

Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said late on Saturday it was “still to early to say, the measures which were introduced in the interests of defending the Hungarian as well as the European borders… clearly worked on the first day”.

This however merely diverted the flow of people to Croatia, which began to transport the migrants by trains and buses to Hungary.

“At the moment there are no problems and no need to use the army”, said the Interior Ministry’s Bostjan Sefic.

According to Slovenian authorities, several hundred migrants entered the country on Saturday, reported Reuters news agency.

Slovenia has said it will only take in 2,500 people a day, significantly slowing down the movement.

A new border has been erected on the border with Croatia. A few 190,000 refugees are estimated to have come into Croatia since mid-September. Most people hope to seek asylum in Germany and other wealthy Western European countries.

This could leave thousands stranded in Croatia and farther east and south in Serbia and Macedonia – the countries on the so-called Balkan migrant corridor.

Hungary closed its frontier, reinforced with a razor-wire fence, at midnight local on Friday.

A train carrying 1,800 migrants arrived at the Croatian town of Cakovec and they were separated into groups travelling to different border crossings.