Austria Possibly to Stop Accepting Migrants, UNHCR Sends Aid to Croatia

The latest on the migrant crisis, as Austrian and Slovenian decisions stem the flow.

The Slovenian police are making great efforts to come to an agreement with Austria about the transit of refugees from Slovenia, but it is likely that Austria will soon stop receiving migrants, Slovenian interior minister Vesna Žnidar said yesterday. “Austria is having difficulty providing accommodation facilities. My assessment is that Austria will soon stop receiving migrants and refugees”, said Žnidar during her visit to the Dobovec border crossing. She added that on Thursday she will talk about the refugee crisis with European commissioner for migration Dimitris Avramopoulos. The current situation is very difficult, but it is still under control, reports Index.hr and Vecernji List on October 22, 2015.

Slovenia has asked several countries of the Schengen Area to assist its police in protection of the border with Croatia, added the minister. She reiterated her earlier assessment that Croatia “does not respect the agreements” and is not coordinating with the Slovenian police. On the other hand, Slovenia is carrying out all the necessary procedures with the migrants that it is required to perform as a member of the Schengen area, said Žnidar. She warned that Slovenia, which is the smallest country on the migrant route, cannot afford to accommodate large numbers of people for a long time.

Slovenian police estimates that since Saturday nearly 25,000 migrants have entered Slovenia from Croatia, but that Austria accepted only about 10,000 of them. Austrian and Slovenian police leaders are discussing the possibilities for the registration procedures to be speeded up.

Transport aircraft A300 from Dubai, bringing 37 tons of humanitarian aid for the refugees from the Middle East and Central Asia, landed on Wednesday at 10 pm at the Osijek airport in Croatia. It was a special flight organized by UNHCR, with tents, raincoats, thermal blankets, heaters and solar lamps. UNHCR spokesperson Jan Kapić told reporters at the airport that the humanitarian aid will be distributed to refugees at the reception centre in Opatovac and along the entire refugee route.

This is just part of the humanitarian aid which has been sent by UNHCR. Refugees have already received more than 80,000 blankets, 50,000 litres of water and 30,000 raincoats. Kapić added that housing units will start to arrive soon, and they will be located at the new reception centre in Slavonski Brod, making the centre more suitable for refugees during the winter months.

Refugees are continuing to cross the border between Serbia and Croatia. From midnight to 9 pm on Wednesday, 6,113 migrants entered Croatia. Currently there are about 3,500 migrants at the Opatovac temporary reception centre. Since the beginning of the migration crisis, 214,474 migrants and refugees have entered Croatia.

“The European Union and Germany are actively working on an agreement with Turkey to provide it with financial and organizational aid so that between 1.5 and 2 million refugees could be accommodated within its borders. We should also mention Lebanon and Jordan, which are much smaller and poorer countries than Turkey, which are already coping with between 700,000 and 1,200,000 refugees”, Croatian foreign minister Vesna Pusić said yesterday. Asked if the refugees would stay in Slavonski Brod for longer than 48 hours, if the borders were to be closed, the minister responded that it should not happen. But, if Germany were to close its borders, there would be a domino effect. Everything depends on how long will Germany be able to accept refugees.

Croatian defence minister Ante Kotromanović said that Croatia will not send its army to the border, despite the Slovenian decision to do so. “That is a Slovenian decision, for the time being we do not have to do that. We have enough police forces which can maintain law and order in the country and at the borders. We have been controlling the crisis from the very beginning, despite the increased flow of refugees. I call on those who spread hysteria to calm down”, Kotromanović said. “So far, the refugees have not made any problems”, he added.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has called a meeting for Sunday of the countries along the Balkan migrant route. The meeting was initiated by Germany and Austria and will include the heads of state or government of the countries affected by the influx of migrants.

 

Subscribe to our newsletter

the fields marked with * are required

Email: *
First name:
Last name:
Gender:	Male Female
Country:
Birthday:	[DD] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 [MM] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 [YYYY] 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Please don't insert text in the box below!