Slovenia's army will help police
deal with thousands of migrants expected to arrive from Croatia in the
coming days, Prime Minister Miro Cerar says.
His announcement came
as hundreds of migrants began arriving on its borders with Croatia - a
day after Hungary closed its frontier with Croatia.
Many of the migrants aim to continue north to Austria and Germany.
More than 600,000 migrants have reached the EU by sea so far this year, many travelling from Turkey to Greece.
However
more than 3,000 have perished trying to cross the Mediterranean. Many
migrants are Syrians fleeing the civil conflict there.
In other news:
Twelve refugees - four of them
children - drowned off the coast of Turkey while trying to reach the
Greek island of Lesbos, the Turkish coastguard said. They were thought
to be from Syria or Afghanistan
The number of migrants camping in the
French port of Calais before attempting to get to the UK has doubled to
6,000, officials say.
Slovenia's Prime Minister Miro Cerar, speaking after
a meeting of the National Security Council, said the government had
decided "to include the army in helping police".
Officials,
according to the Associated Press, said the military would only be
deployed if there were large numbers of migrants, and would only provide
logistical support to the police.
"We
are going to focus even more on safety and security and order so our
country can function normally," Mr Cerar said, adding, "if destination
countries begin adopting stricter measures at the border, Slovenia will
follow suit". Image copyrightAFPImage caption
Migrants in Slovenia have to register before they can move on to Austria
Throughout the morning, some 600 refugees at a
reception centre near Croatia's border with Serbia were bussed to two
border crossings into Slovenia.
The UN refugee agency said they were being registered by police and taken to a refugee camp close to the Austrian border.
"For
now (the procedure) is running really smoothly. Unlike other countries,
Slovenia had time to prepare... It's not perfect, but things are
moving," UNHCR spokeswoman Caroline van Buren told the AFP news agency.
A
train carrying 1,800 migrants later arrived at the Croatian town of
Cakovec, close to the Slovenian border. Six hundred will board buses to
two separate border crossings, while the rest will remain on the train
to another two border crossings, the BBC's Guy Delauney reports. At the scene: BBC's Guy Delauney in Croatia
The quiet Croatian town of Cakovec is preparing for a new role - as a railhead for refugees.
Thousands
of them are expected to come through here in the coming days, following
Hungary's completion of a fence along its border with Croatia. Now as
many as 5,000 people a day will have to use an alternative route into
the Schengen area.
They will arrive by train from reception areas
close to Croatia's border with Serbia. Then they will be split into
groups. Some will go by bus to the border crossing with Slovenia at
Macelj. But the majority will travel on by train to another crossing at
Sredisce ob Dravi.
Red Cross and UNHCR workers welcomed those who
arrived on Saturday afternoon - as an already long journey has become
that little bit more complicated. Can deeds match words?: The challenges ahead for the EU and Turkey The pull of Europe: Five migrant stories Merkel under pressure: Chancellor's migrant policy faces criticism at home Focus on Turkey: Why the EU views Syria's northern neighbour as key Crisis in graphics: Migration numbers explained
As
well as bringing in the army, Slovenia, a nation of some two million
people, has deployed extra police to its border areas and stopped all
passenger rail transport from Croatia.
But Slovenian Interior
Minister Vesna Gjorkos Znidar earlier said the country would keep
accepting refugees as long as Austria and Germany's borders remain open.
The past month has seen some 3,000 migrants pass through
Slovenia, Reuters news agency reported. Slovenia has said it was in a
position to accommodate up to 8,000 migrants per day. Image copyrightAFPImage caption
Before midnight on Friday, groups of migrants were still able to cross into Hungary
Image copyrightReutersImage caption
But then soldiers sealed the border with Croatia
Image copyrightAPImage caption
Some have been on the road for weeks
Some 5,000 to 8,000 people were being allowed across Hungary every day, without registration, bound for Austria.
But
late on Friday, several hundred migrants became the last to pass from
Croatia into Hungary at the border village of Zakany. "Closure!" a
soldier shouted after they passed across.
Hungary said it shut the
border with Croatia after European Union leaders failed to agree its
plan to send a force to prevent migrants reaching Greece.
Hungary's
closure of its border with Croatia comes just a month after it shut its
frontier with Serbia, which was another transit route to Western
Europe.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said border
controls with Slovenia would be temporarily reinstated to safeguard
Hungary from a "mass wave of unidentified, uncontrolled migrants."
Hungary and Slovenia are both part of the passport-free Schengen zone, but Croatia is not.
Media caption"They were just in time, after this one last train might make it through here" - Damian Grammaticus in BotovoCroatia's Interior Minister, Ranko Ostojic, said his country was "turning the route, the corridor, towards Slovenia".
But it had not struck any agreement with Slovenia, according to Mr Ostojic. "This is (purely) a Croatian plan."
Migrants arriving in Europe
615,895
arrived by sea so far in 2015
216,054
arrivals for whole of 2014
475,499 Turkey to Greece
137,500 Libya & Tunisia to Italy
2,797 Morocco to Spain
99 Libya to Malta
Reuters
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