Croatia sharply criticised Slovenia for unfurling razor wire along stretches of their border on Wednesday, as Europe continued to struggle to find a co-ordinated response to its biggest refugee crisis since the second World War.
As EU and African leaders met in Malta to discuss how to stem the flow of asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean, Slovenian troops laid spools of wire along several kilometres of the country's eastern frontier.
Miro Cerar, Slovenia's prime minister, insisted this week that he did not intend to seal the frontier, but only "direct migrants towards border crossings".
He said the move was needed to protect the border of the EU's Schengen zone of "passport-free" travel, as some 30,000 migrants travelled north through the Balkans after a four-day ferry strike created a backlog in Greece.
Balkan leaders are frustrated with the EU’s failure to tackle the crisis at points further south, having long urged the bloc’s leaders to ensure that Greece and Turkey do more to control the flow of migrants.
In the absence of co-ordinated EU action, Balkan and central European states are taking matters into their own hands.
Since Hungary built a fence along its border with Serbia in mid-September, more than 350,000 asylum seekers have crossed Croatia on their way west.
A month later, Hungary sealed its border with Croatia, since when almost 180,000 migrants have been forced to cross Slovenia to reach Austria and Germany.
Croatia now fears thousands of people could be trapped there, if Slovenia restricts the entry of migrants while Serbia continues to move travellers as quickly as possible through its territory.
Waste of money
“Erecting a wire fence is a waste of money. It would have been better to build a temporary shelter for refugees, with the same capacity as ours,” said Croatia’s interior minister,
Ranko Ostojic
.
“Instead of that, they’re sending a signal that the border is gradually closing, which has the opposite effect to that intended – it makes even more people come.”
With winter approaching, Croatia has closed an open-air transit camp for migrants and opened a new indoor facility that can handle about 5,000 people daily.
"If Serbia, Hungary, Macedonia, Slovenia, Austria and Bulgaria had the same thing, we could control every wave of refugees," Mr Ostojic said, dismissing Mr Cerar's fears about the latest "surge" from Greece.
Mr Ostojic also insisted that Croatia would not be inundated with asylum seekers who may be returned to the first EU country they entered under the bloc’s so-called Dublin regulations – which Germany says it is applying again, having waived it for Syrians since August.
With Greece considered incapable by the EU of handling asylum requests, Croatia and Hungary fear large numbers of migrants could be sent back to them.
"The Dublin system is dead," Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday.
"If anyone leaves from Syria toward Europe it is physically impossible for them to enter the European Union in Hungary . . . Therefore it is not justified to send any Syrians back to Hungary."
