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Slovenia to start erecting border barriers soon: PM

Xinhua, November 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

Slovenia will start in the coming days to erect barriers, including wire fencing, on its border with Croatia to manage the flow of refugees along the Balkan route, Prime Minister Miro Cerar announced Tuesday.

Action to put up barriers on selected sections of the border will start soon, according to the Slovenian Press Agency (STA), to "prevent a humanitarian disaster" given an anticipated new surge in arrivals.

The aim is "not to seal off the border," which will remain open, but to "control the refugee flow and prevent a dispersion of refugees across the border," said Cerar.

On Monday, the prime minister told his government session that some 30,000 refugees were expected to arrive by Thursday and that the number of those crossing into the EU at the external border each day was not dropping.

According to him, the danger facing Slovenia as winter comes is that a new surge in refugees could create a bottleneck, leaving thousands upon thousands stranded in the country, especially if Austria and Germany start to stringently limit the number of arrivals at its borders.

He said that Austria informed Slovenia it would limit the daily arrivals across its border to 6,000 and Germany also indicated it was looking to impose limits.

As Slovenia is the one of the smallest countries on the refugee route leading from the Balkans to northern Europe, it has "limited capacities to handle a large number of people, provide them shelter in the winter and food," Cerar added.

He said this meant there was a danger of a serious humanitarian crisis arising in the country in the event of a large bottleneck.

A bottleneck in Slovenia could also undermine security, as authorities struggle to deal with the sheer numbers of arrivals, which is why the government has decided to act to "protect the population and the refugees."

The government decided for the measure in the absence of a systemic solution at EU level, he added, given there was no sign efforts to contain the number of arrivals at the external border in Greece were working.

This has been the main demand by Slovenia since the refugee flow was diverted to Slovenia by Hungary's decision to seal off its border with Croatia on Oct. 16.

Over 170,000 refugees have crossed into Slovenia since then, making for an average of around 7,000 people per day, including a record of around 12,600 on Oct. 21.

Cerar said the government had opted for barriers after weighing up all aspects of such a move, including the symbolism of border barriers.

"Personally, it was difficult to decide on the use of technical barriers since it is by no means my wish to close borders. But as the prime minister, I have a responsibility to ensure that the flow of refugees is controlled in order to prevent a humanitarian disaster and provide for security," Cerar said.

Cerar said he contacted his Croatian counterpart Zoran Milanovic to inform him of Slovenia's decision and to coordinate further action in relation to the crisis. He reiterated that the measure is not intended to prevent Croatia from being able to move refugees along. Endit