The latest on the migrant crisis.
On Sunday, only 382 migrants entered Slovenia from Croatia, which is the lowest daily inflow since the beginning of this year. According to the Slovenian police, the Austrian authorities on Sunday allowed entry for 357 migrants from Slovenia. Since Austria introduced restrictions and daily quotas about ten days ago, similar decisions have been made by other countries on the refugee route. Slovenia is now ready to accept no more than one refugee train a day, with a maximum of 580 refugees and migrants, report tportal.hr and Jutarnji List on February 29, 2016.
Slovenian Foreign Affairs Minister Karl Erjavec said yesterday that cooperation between Ljubljana and Zagreb in the refugee crisis is much better since the new government took power in Croatia. He added that Slovenia will next month be visited by Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Miro Kovač. “Cooperation on the issue of migration is much better with the new Croatian government than with the previous one led by Milanović”, said Karl Erjavec in an interview with Slovenian television broadcast on Sunday night.
Slovenian-Croatian cooperation in the flow of refugees is good, and we are continuing with the good economic relations as well, said Erjavec. “In terms of outstanding issues, there are no changes and we do not expect rapid progress”, added Erjavec. In the interview, Erjavec mostly talked about the refugee crisis. He said he was sceptical of the agreement between the European Union and Turkey to stop the migrant wave. Therefore, he supported the decision of the countries on the so-called Balkan refugee route to establishing a more coordinated regime for refugees. If the situation with migration crisis were to escalate, Ljubljana has contingency plans in place, he said and stressed that migrants are entering the country under the control of security forces.
Greece fears that the number of migrants blocked in its territory could soon reach 70,000 due to new quotas which countries on the Balkan route have imposed on refugees wishing to settle in Europe. “According to our estimates, the number of those who will find themselves trapped in our country will be between 50,000 and 70,000 next month”, said on Sunday the Greek minister for migration policy Janis Muzalas. “Today, in Greece there are 22,000 refugees and migrants”, he said in an interview with TV station Mega Channel.
Around 6,500 migrants were blocked on Sunday in northern Greece at the Macedonian border, after Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Macedonia, following the decision of Austria, decided to introduce new quotas to stem the influx of migrants. Macedonia on Saturday admitted only 300 people from the camp in Idomeni since Skopje last week decided to refuse admission to its territory to Afghans and has intensified the control of personal documents of Syrians and Iraqis.
