Ljubljana: Slovenian authorities said on Monday that they had refused to let in more than 1,000 migrants arriving from Croatia after a daily quota had been reached, stoking fears of a new human bottleneck on the Western Balkan route.
The desperate refugees and migrants were forced to spend the night in freezing temperatures near rail tracks after police stopped them from walking across the border. They are among thousands of people — mostly fleeing violence in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan — who forged a new route to northern Europe.
The Hungarian government’s latest move to stop the flow through Greece, Macedonia and Serbia has pushed the migrants towards Slovenia from where they hope to continue towards Austria and eventually Germany.
A train carrying around 1,800 people arrived at the Sredisce ob Dravi checkpoint on the Croatian side, but only 500 of “the most vulnerable” category were allowed into Slovenia, police spokesman Bojan Kitel said.
“We try to carry out coordinated and manageable inflow to avoid exceeding the accommodation capacity in Slovenia.”
