The Croatian sun has given way to rain and the temperature has dropped, but refugees and migrants continue to stream into the country, forcing officials and charities to scramble to prepare for wintry conditions.
More than 90,000 refugees and migrants, many of them fleeing conflict in the Middle East, have transited through Croatia since the middle of last month after EU member Hungary closed its border with Serbia, forcing them to find a new route.
“It’s starting to get really cold. For someone of my origin, it’s not easy,” Syrian student Ahmad said.
Photo: AFP
He laughs it off, but next to him others shiver on the muddy road in Bapska, an eastern village in Croatia that is the first point of entry for travelers seeking better lives in northern Europe, especially Germany.
Despite the cold, the wind and the drizzle, few complain as they wait to be transferred to a reception center in Opatovac, about 12km away.
“For the adults, it’s still okay, but for the children it is starting to get difficult,” a 58-year-old man said, who fled the Syrian city of Raqqa, which the Islamic State group has designated its capital.
In these eastern Croatian plains, the weather has changed quickly.
“A few days ago the people were suffering from the heat. Now the cold and rain have arrived and at night, the temperature can fall to 5° [Celsius],” Doctors Without Borders coordinator of the Croatia mission Nathalie Salles said.
“The risks now, especially for children, are hypothermia and respiratory infections,” she said.
The Croatian Red Cross has been distributing blankets and raincoats at Opatovac, where many have arrived without sufficient clothing, volunteers said.
At the camp, which is Croatia’s main reception center and seen as the showcase for its treatment of refugees and migrants, the initial chaos seen last month has subsided and improvements are under way.
The center can house 4,000 people and some prefabricated homes have been erected to shelter children and mothers, along with new tents, some with heating. However, the majority are housed in large military tents, on top of which rainwater regularly accumulates.
Currently, most of the refugees and migrants are fairly quickly ferried up to Hungary and onward to northern Europe, but uncertainty remains about Budapest’s threatened closure of the Croatian border.
The move would block thousands of refugees and migrants on parts of Croatian soil where winter conditions can be harsh.
In addition to the Opatovac camp, Croatia can host 1,500 to 2,000 people in Zagreb and smaller numbers at other temporary shelters around the country — but they could quickly be overwhelmed by the thousands who arrive daily from Serbia.
For now, the government is brushing off the threat from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose remarks have been described as “bravado” by Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic.
There has also been talk, spread by the Croatian opposition ahead of elections in November, of a new migrant route emerging from across the Montenegrin border into the far south of Croatia near the tourism jewel of Dubrovnik, which has a milder climate.
Some are already calling it the “route for winter,” but the cold, dry wind that blows from the north and the rugged terrain would make the passage difficult and possibly dangerous.
The government says it will dissuade refugees and migrants from going this way, but regional authorities are nevertheless preparing for the eventuality at old military institutions on the Prevlaka Peninsula.
A decrease in the flow to Opatovac is expected as the winter sets in and the sea crossing from Turkey to Greece becomes more dangerous.
“But in fact we do not yet know how the cold will affect their flow,” UNHCR official Alexandra Krause said earlier this week.
“Now our job is to prepare the reception center for wintry conditions,” she said.
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