Refugees flood into reluctant Slovenia

Row escalates in blame game over exodus that has shaken EU

Thousands of migrants have flooded into Slovenia, as the country and Croatia traded accusations over who is to blame for the exodus that has overwhelmed the Balkans and shaken the EU to its core.

Slovenian police on horseback and in riot gear surrounded hundreds of newcomers in a muddy field near the border village of Rigonce, herding them on a 14km trek to the nearest overcrowded reception area.

Some of the refugees wrapped themselves in blankets to ward off the cold.

Slovenia’s interior ministry said Croat police were dumping thousands of undocumented people on its border “without control” and were ignoring telephoned Slovene requests to contain the surge.

The Croats countered that only half of the asylum seekers on its soil were being delivered north, and they accused the Slovenes of ignoring messages too.

“The pressure of immigrants arriving from Croatia is intensifying,” the Slovenian government said.

Slovenia has faced a surge of migration across its southern border since Saturday, when Hungary sealed its border with Croatia.

Most people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia say they want to seek refuge in Germany, Sweden, or other wealthy parts of Western Europe that offer better support to asylum-seekers.

Croatian interior minister Ranko Ostojic said that his officials repeatedly had asked Slovene police “where they want to receive the refugees”, but had yet to receive a reply. Slovene officials insisted the reverse was true.

While Slovenia says it can handle only 2,500 migrants a day, its police force said about 8,300 migrants seeking to head toward Western Europe already were in its reception centres, with thousands more arriving by the hour.

Croatia did not seem inclined to halt the flow. Yesterday morning, a train carrying more than 1,000 people from the Croatian town of Tovarnik and some 20 buses of full of refugees from the Opatovac refugee camp were headed toward the Slovenian border.

Ostojic said Croatia expects Slovenia each day to accept about half of the total migrants travelling through Croatia: “If we are receiving 10,000, then 5,000 people have to be transited to Slovenia. If the number in Croatia is 5,000, then it’s 2,500, or 50%.”

He said more than 204,000 migrants had reached Croatia this year, the vast majority of them since September 15, when Hungary shut down its border with Serbia.

Some 2,600 are in refugee camps and 2,500 were waiting in the Croatian village of Bapska to be taken by bus to the border with Slovenia.

Slovenia’s parliament is expected to decide later on a proposal to allow the army to assist police with border control.

The Slovene government said 8,000 migrants arrived on Monday and at least 4,000 more, including many babies and young children, came early yesterday.