The Balkans this weekend resembles a pinball machine, with people being flipped from border to border by states unwilling to let them in, or pass
ADVERTISEMENTThe Balkans this weekend resembles a pinball machine, with people being flipped from border to border by states unwilling to let them in, or pass through.
Slovenia is becoming the new hotspot in what some commentators are describing as a game of political chicken ; which nation will blink first? Refugees are arriving on Croatia’s border with Austria’s tiny neighbour, but it is still unclear when, or if Slovenia will let them through. Over 1000 were reported to have entered on Saturday, and the idea of corridors of passage is still being discussed.
“The border is closed, police are here and no one will let us go inside. We don’t want to stay here, we want to go to Austria, from Austria we go everywhere. But here? I don’t know why they closed it. It is a small country and we walk through, I told you that before, really we can go by walking, it is no problem for us,” said Iraqi dentist Ammar.
Serbia is bussing people to the Croat border, but the Croats are sending many people back to both there and Hungary, which is finishing its barbed-wire fence along its Croatian border, and is mobilising army reservists to patrol it. Croatia is speeding up their relocation both west and north, to Slovenia and Hungary, insisting it can take no more.