Slovenia says will not accept unlimited number of migrants

Hundreds of migrants were also left waiting in the mud on the border between Serbia and Croatia, after Croatian police put up gates to control their influx.

With Hungary closing its border with Croatia to migrants at midnight on Friday, the unrelenting flow has been diverted to Slovenia en route to Austria and Germany, the favored destination for most migrants, many of them refugees from the Syrian war.

Croatian police say more than 4,000 migrants remain in the refugee camp in Opatovac near the Serbian border.

A train carrying around 1,800 people arrived overnight at the Sredisce ob Dravi checkpoint on the Croatian side, but only 500 of “the most vulnerable” were allowed into Slovenia and taken to a nearby registration centre, police spokesman Bojan Kitel said.

“We cannot accept an unlimited number of migrants if we know they can not continue their journey”, explained Slovenia’s State Secretary Bostjan Sefic. “That would be unacceptable”.

Having declared it would accept only 2,500 per day, Slovenia said 5,000 had arrived from Croatia on Monday, with another 1,200 on their way by train.

Men carry their children wrapped in emergency blankets shortly after arriving with other migrants. We wear lots of shirts. The children are also in the cold.

The sisters, travelling from war-torn Damascus with their father, were among around 2,000 refugees waiting to cross into Croatia from Serbia on Sunday afternoon as the flow of travellers allowed to go over the border dramatically slowed down.

It’s the second refugee wave reaching the country in a month.

Zoltan Kovacs told reporters in Nagykanizsa, western Hungary on Sunday.

Only 41 people crossed into the European Union member state on Sunday, the Hungarian government said.

Thousands of migrants, diverted from Hungary after it closed its borders, have surged into Slovenia via the Croatian border.

As long as the migrants kept moving, the countries along the route were able to deal with the number of migrants passing through, refugee officials and aid workers said.

Slovenia had previously expressed concern about the situation after Hungary sealed off its border with the country this weekend. ‘There will be challenges if the process becomes slow or we have a backlog of people’.

Croatian government leaders argue that it is pointless, if not impossible, to stop people who overwhelmingly express determination to reach wealthier, more liberal nations in Western Europe, chiefly Germany.

Balkan refugee mayhem ensues as Hungary seals another border.

Davutoglu is seeking concessions to work with the EU.

“We are prepared to work together against illegal migration and against people traffickers who exploit helpless people”, Davutoglu said.

Pressure from the refugee crisis mounted elsewhere on the continent.