Serbia and EU member Slovenia on Tuesday said they would place new restrictions on the entry of refugees, putting extra obstacles in the way of those trying to reach the EU via the Balkans.
The decisions to further restrict routes taken by more than 1 million refugees in the past year were announced hours after EU leaders declared an end to a mass scramble to reach wealthy countries in Europe from war zones.
“From midnight, there will be no more migration on the Western Balkan route as it took place so far,” the Slovenian Ministry of the Interior said in a statement.
Photo: AP
It said EU leaders agreed in Brussels on Monday that member states must enforce the rules of the open-border Schengen area.
This means that Slovenia would bar passage to refugees except those who planned to request asylum in the country or who sought entry for humanitarian reasons, which would be individually assessed.
Only about 460 of the almost 478,000 refugees who have passed through Slovenia since October last year asked for asylum in the country, with most heading to wealthier northern nations such as Germany.
Non-EU member Serbia said Slovenia’s decision meant “a closure of the Balkan route” for refugees and said it would follow suit.
“Serbia cannot allow itself to become a collective center for refugees, so it will harmonize all its measures with those of the EU member states,” the ministry said in a statement.
Croatian Minister of the Interior Vlaho Orepic said late on Tuesday that the former Yugoslav republic, which is an EU member but not part of the Schengen area, would apply new rules meaning that only those people traveling with valid documents and visas would be allowed to enter.
At least 34,000 people have been trapped in various parts of Greece from a cascade of border shutdowns further north. That has slowed the numbers reaching Slovenia to a trickle. The last refugees arrived in Slovenia three days ago, police there said.
Nevertheless, the UN refugee agency said there are about 1,500 refugees in Macedonia and about 1,000 in Serbia. These people could be stranded by the new border restrictions.
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