The latest from the migrant crisis in Croatia.
From midnight to 9 pm on Wednesday, 1,982 migrants entered Croatia. There were just 12 people accommodated at the temporary refugee centre in Slavonski Brod. Since the beginning of the migration crisis, 462,846 migrants and refugees have passed through Croatia, reports tportal.hr, Index.hr and Jutarnji List on December 3, 2015.
Slovenian Interior Ministry announced that so far it has put up 96.5 kilometres of fences on the border with Croatia and will continue with further construction despite the decreasing number of refugees arriving from Croatia. The fence has been placed in the areas where it is expected there is a possibility for dispersed arrival of illegal migrants.
The decision to put up the fence has been made by the government of Prime Minister Miro Cerar on November 9, at a time when the influx of migrants was about 6,000 a day, while in the last week that number has been reduced to no more than 2,000. The decision was based on the analysis that Slovenia will receive about 5,000 people a day at least until February next year. The decision was also influenced by the pressure from the opposition, after the statement of former Prime Minister Janez Janša that Cerar was not controlling the situation on the ground. Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec said in early November that border will remain open for refugees until Austria and Germany continue to admit them and until a common European solution is found.
Macedonian police fired tear gas yesterday at hundreds of migrants, mainly from Pakistan, who were trying to enter Macedonia from Greece, seeking passage to northern Europe. About 1,500 Pakistanis, Moroccans and Iranians have been waiting in no man’s land between Greece and Macedonia for weeks after the countries on the so-called Balkan Route began to filter migrants, allowing passage only to refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The protest broke out among desperate migrants who have been stuck for days in tent camps on the border at temperatures barely above freezing. Violence erupted on Wednesday after 200 people began walking several kilometres along the newly-erected fences seeking an alternative entrance point. Macedonian police used tear gas to deter the crowd and one policeman fired a warning shot in the air.
The decision to screen migrants on the basis of their nationality has been receiving criticism from human rights organizations which claim that all asylum claims should be treated according to individual circumstances.
EU and Turkey could soon announce an agreement reached behind closed doors about the resettlement of between 400,000 and 500,000 Syrian refugees directly from Turkey to the EU, said on Wednesday Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Speaking at a meeting with Hungarian officials in Budapest, Orban said he expected strong pressure from Europe for Hungary to take some of these half a million refugees.
He added that the agreement circulated among the participants of the recent EU summit in Malta, but was rejected and has not been included in the agreements between the EU and Turkey signed this weekend in Brussels, since the advocates of this idea did not get enough support. “Europeans can expect an unpleasant surprise,” he added. Orban hinted that the deal had been organized by Germany and predicted that it could determine the political climate in Europe in the coming days and weeks.
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