Slovenia to put up hurdles in bid to slow migrant flow

Slovenian government said Monday it would take urgent measures to strengthen control of its Schengen border with Croatia, fearing an expected new wave of migrants would be scarcely manageable.

The Croatian government said Zoran Milanovic, the prime minister, and Mr Cerar had spoken on Tuesday and “agreed to continue cooperation… on the reception and flow of migrants and refugees”.

“I emphasize that Slovenia is not closing its borders, but only wants to prevent the uncontrolled entry of migrants into our territory”, Cerar said.

Slovenia is the smallest country on a major route for refugees. “Such a situation could lead to extremely severe humanitarian conditions”, the government said.

Cerar said the government had opted for barriers after weighing up all aspects of such a move, including the symbolism of border barriers.

Some 30,000 more are expected in Slovenia over the next few days. Cerar stressed that these obstacles are meant to direct migrants towards border crossings.

The “commitments from Brussels… are not being fulfilled”. “The flow of migrants for a country of 2 million residents is just too big”.

European Union states have bickered for months over a joint solution to the continent’s worst migration crisis since World War II.

“The only way to deal with (the crisis) is to regain our national sovereignty and close our national borders”, Dutch anti-immigration firebrand Geert Wilders told AFP in an interview, warning of an “Islamic invasion”.

The ministers also said they would explore the possibility of setting up processing centres in the Balkans.

According to him, the danger facing Slovenia as winter comes is that a new surge in refugees could create a bottleneck, leaving thousands upon thousands stranded in the country, especially if Austria and Germany start to stringently limit the number of arrivals at its borders.

The United Nations estimates more than 700,000 migrants – fleeing wars and conflicts in the Middle East and north Africa – have arrived in Europe this year.