Europe

Migrant crisis: Slovenia sets

limit of 2,500 people a day

8 hours ago

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Media captionDamian Grammaticas reports from the Serbian-Croatian border where
hundreds of migrants have been stranded

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Slovenia will only allow 2,500 migrants to cross its borders daily - half the
number neighbour Croatia has asked for.
Interior Ministry Secretary of State Bostjan Sefic said Slovenia could not accept
Croatia's request to take 5,000, because Austria's daily limit is 1,500.
Most migrants - many from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq - are crossing Croatia and
Slovenia to reach western Europe.
The limitation on numbers has led to a build-up of migrants and refugees on
Croatia's border with Serbia.

At the scene: Guy Delauney, BBC News,

Croatia-Slovenia border

Slovenia may be no more than a transit country for people who want to make their
way to Germany, Sweden and Norway. But the authorities there have no desire to
be overwhelmed - or worse still, lumbered with tens of thousands of refugees if
countries further along the line close their borders.
So it is sending a message that it can accept no more than 2,500-3,000 people per
day. Whether this is the actual number making it across from Croatia is hard to say.
But whatever the statistics, the Croatian authorities say they are worried that
people are no longer moving through their country quickly enough. A government
official told the BBC that Croatia could run out of room in its transit camps within
days.

Read more:
Can deeds match words?: The challenges ahead for the EU and Turkey
The pull of Europe: Five migrant stories
Merkel under pressure: Chancellor's migrant policy faces criticism at home
Focus on Turkey: Why the EU views Syria's northern neighbour as key
Crisis in graphics: Migration numbers explained

Around 40 buses of people were backed up in Serbia on Sunday, and tempers

flared between frustrated migrants and overstretched police officers.
"We are waiting here four hours on the bus," Muhammad Samin from Afghanistan
told the Associated Press. "The weather is too cold. We wear lots of shirts. The
children are also in the cold. No food."

There are also reported to be 4,000 migrants waiting at a reception centre in the
east Croatian town of Opatovac, hoping for an onward journey towards Slovenia.
The migrants have already spent weeks walking from Turkey, via Greece,
Macedonia and Serbia.

Image copyrightAPImage captionMigrants began climbing over barriers as numbers

built up on the Serbia-Croatia border

Image copyrightEPAImage captionThese people reached a reception centre in

Slovenia, having crossed Croatia

Image copyrightAFPImage captionAround 1,000 migrants and refugees crossed

into Austria from Slovenia on Saturday
Mr Sefic told a news conference that Slovenia "cannot accept unlimited numbers of
migrants if we know that they cannot continue their journey".
"Croatia asked us to accept 5,000 migrants per day, but Austria told us they can
accept at maximum 1,500," he said.
He said Slovenia had to turn down a request by Croatia on Sunday to send it a
second train of migrants.
The UN's refugee agency says about 4,000 migrants crossed into Slovenia on
Saturday. By Sunday morning, Austria said it had allowed through around 1,000
people.
Slovenia became the main route for migrants after Hungary closed its borders to
them on Friday night, citing security concerns.

Image copyrightAPImage captionGermany's Angela Merkel is on a one-day visit to

Turkey
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is hoping to tackle the crisis at source, visiting
Turkey which is currently hosting two million Syrians and hundreds of thousands of
Iraqis.
She has promised money, support for Turks to travel to the EU without visas and
re-energising Turkey's bid to join the bloc, all in the hope that Ankara can better
police its borders and convince its refugees to stay put, the BBC's Mark Lowen
reports from Istanbul.
At a joint news conference with Mrs Merkel, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said
Turkey would do its best to work with Germany to prevent illegal migration, but
added that the crisis could not be resolved without a solution to the Syrian conflict.
Mrs Merkel's visit was condemned by Selahattin Demirtas, of the pro-Kurdish
People's Democratic Party. He said her visit came too close to Turkey's general

election, on 1 November, and she should be seeking cross-party opinion as "that

would be the only way to understand Turkey's position better".
Migrants continue to make the perilous sea crossing from Turkey to Greece.
The Italian navy tweeted on Sunday it had rescued 113 migrants and found eight
bodies in a rubber boat, attempting to cross the Mediterranean.
On Saturday, 12 refugees - four of them children - drowned while trying to reach
the Greek island of Lesbos. They were thought to be from Syria or Afghanistan.

Migrants arriving in Europe

615,895
arrived by sea so far in 2015

216,054
arrivals for whole of 2014

475,499 Turkey to Greece

137,500 Libya & Tunisia to Italy
2,797 Morocco to Spain
99 Libya to Malta
UNHCR

Reuters

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