The barbed-wire fence which has been put up by Slovenian government has been forgotten by everybody expect by people who live next to it.
Farmers and tourist industry representatives on the Slovenian side of the Kupa river are demanding compensation for the razor-wire fence that was left on the river bank after the migration crisis ended. They complain that responsible authorities are not responding to their demands that the wire should be removed, reports tportal.hr on June 13, 2016.
“We have sent a petition with 5,000 signatures to Parliament Speaker Milan Brglez for the barbed wire to be removed, but no one has responded. Obviously, there is not enough of us for our voices to be heard”, said Igor Volf from the civil initiative for removal of the wire fence from the small and poor border municipality Kostel.
“They have closed our factories, and when we started turning towards tourism, the fence came”, said Wolf. Nataša Letig Žagar from the same municipality added that the razor-wire fence was dangerous for agricultural activities, although it has been partly replaced with a panel fence.
“Razor-wire fence has been overgrown with grass in some parts, and some parts were hit by floods, so it has turned into a deadly trap which is many kilometres long”, said Žagar, adding that the villagers were afraid to mow the grass because they did not know what was in it. They also do not allow their cows to pasture near the river. “The terrain is dangerous for agricultural machinery, for hikers and for children”, she said.
There is no reaction to the demands of farmers and tourist industry that they should at least be paid some kind of compensation if the wire, as the Slovenian government claims, has to remain there at least until the autumn.
The whole idea of constructing a fence between Slovenia and Croatia has turned out to be a disaster, since there has been virtually no refugees which the fence stopped from crossing into Slovenia.
