Slovenia informs Croatia of new rules for the acceptance of migrants and refugees.
Starting from next week, Austria will admit only migrants from endangered countries coming through the Balkan route and reject all those who come for other reasons. It has informed Slovenia about the new measures, and Slovenia later informed other countries along the route, including Croatia, reported the Slovenian Ministry of the Interior Affairs on Sunday, reports Vecernji List on February 15, 2016.
The Ministry warned that Slovenia would apply the same criteria for the entry of migrants to Slovenia from Croatia. Authorities in Ljubljana explain that Slovenian Interior Minister Vesna Gjerkeš Žnidar has been in constant contact with her Austrian counterpart Johanna Mikl-Leitner, that the migration wave is under control and that there is a coordination of procedures with other countries on the route.
According to information by Slovenian authorities, it will no longer be sufficient for migrants to give a statement that their goal is to seek asylum in Austria or Germany. Entry might be refused to those who are judged to want to come to Austria or Germany due to other motives, including studying, looking for a job or joining relatives who are already there.
The Slovenian Interior Ministry stated that they will continue to be in constant contact with the countries through which migrants are passing and added that Slovenia will have to adapt to the admission criteria established by Austria and Germany.
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić called on Sunday the European Union to take a joint approach to managing the migration crisis and announced that Serbia would close its borders to migrants if Austria, Slovenia and Croatia do the same. “Last year, 600,000 migrants passed through our country. We are concerned that the EU lacks a coherent policy and that various individual measures taken by certain countries put us in a difficult situation”, said Dačić.
He added that Serbia’s further steps would depend primarily on the actions of other countries on the Western Balkan route. “We have to see what Austria intends to do, whether it will close its border, and then later to see what will Slovenia and Croatia do. In that case, Serbia would be forced to close its own borders, because we do not have capacities for so many people to remain in Serbia”, said Dačić in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
