Croatia Diverts Migrants to Slovenia after Hungary Border Closure
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A first bus full of migrants arrived at a Slovenian border crossing with Croatia on Saturday, the Slovenian police said, after Hungary shut its border with Croatia late on Friday, diverting them toward Slovenia.
Hungary's action to close its southern border is indicative of Europe’s disjointed response to the flow of people fleeing war and poverty.
Slovenian police said the bus had arrived at a border crossing from Croatia and that the passengers would be registered.
But Slovenia has canceled all rail traffic with fellow European Union member and former Yugoslav republic Croatia, potentially slowing the movement of people just as autumn winds and rain are sweeping through the Balkans.
Forty-three buses packed with migrants, many of them refugees from the war in Syria, were stacked up at Serbia’s western border with Croatia in the village of Berkasovo, a Reuters reporter said. Croatia had only allowed five buses to enter in the morning and some had been queuing through the night.
Hungary has erected a steel fence almost the length of its southern frontier with Serbia and Croatia, saying it is duty-bound to secure the borders of the European Union from migrants threatening, it says, the prosperity, security and “Christian values” of Europe, Reuters reported.
Budapest is among several ex-Communist members of the EU that oppose an EU plan to share out 120,000 refugees among its members. That is only a small proportion of the 700,000 migrants expected to reach Europe’s shores by boat and dinghy from North Africa and Turkey this year, many of them fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.