Tiny Slovenia has said it will only take in 2,500 people a day, significantly stalling the movement of people as they fled their countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. On Saturday, more than 6,000 people reached Croatia, but most of them were stuck in the country as well as in neighboring Serbia yesterday -- and thousands kept on arriving.
The Balkan migrant route switched to Slovenia early Saturday after Hungary's right-wing government closed its border to Croatia for the influx, citing security concerns and saying it wants to protect the European Union from an uncontrolled flow of people.
Slovenian officials said they can't accept 5,000 migrants per day as asked by Croatia, which is likely to cause a further backlog in the flow. Interior Ministry official Bostjan Sefic said Slovenia can't take more than neighboring Austria, which said it can accept 1,500 per day.
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Slovenia said yesteray it won't allow entry to about 1,800 migrants on a train from Croatia after more than 2,000 people have already entered in one day. Some 5,000 other migrants will have to spend a cold night in a camp in Opatovac, eastern Croatia, before they can head toward Slovenia, the next step on their journey toward richer EU states, such as Germany or Sweden.
Across the border in Serbia, thousands of people have been sitting in some 50 buses since early hours of yesterday waiting to cross to Croatia. More are expected to arrive during the day.
The United Nations refugee agency warned that Hungary's decision to close its border for migrants has increased their suffering and could lead to a backlog down the so-called Balkan route that goes from Turkey through Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia.