Slovenia Erects Border Fence To Halt Flow Of Refugees

(Vatican Radio) Slovenia has begun erecting a controversial razor-wire fence at its border with Croatia to stem the inflow of migrants fleeing poverty and war, including from Syria, as winter sets in. The decision is impacting one of the last land roads still available to refugees seeking to start a new life in Western Europe.  

Listen to Stefan Bos' report 

A convoy of army trucks carrying barbed wire and construction equipment suddenly arrived in the border town of Veliki Obrez:  Soldiers rolled out the wire along the Slovenian bank of the Sotla River, which forms part of Slovenia’s roughly 640 kilometer-border with Croatia. 

Slovenia is a crucial country on the migration route through the Balkans: Its border with Croatia also forms the southern frontier of Europe’s Schengen area, where passport-free travel is possible.

Slovenian officials say that since October 17, when Hungary closed its border with Croatia and redirected the flow, more than 180,000 refugees from Africa, the Middle East and Asia entered Slovenia, a small Alpine nation of two million people.

HUNGARY’S EXAMPLE

Slovenia had resisted building a fence such as Hungary where anti-migration Prime Minister Viktor Orbán links refugees to terrorism and accuses them of being mainly Islamic economic migrants seeking a better life and threatening what he views as Europe’s and Hungary’s Christian values.

Yet Slovenia’s Prime Minister Prime Minister Miro Cerar says he saw now other option than to build a barrier that will direct migrants toward reception centers. “As prime minister I cannot allow this humanitarian catastrophe to happen in Slovenia,” he told reporters. 

“Slovenia is a responsible member of the European Union and a guardian of the Schengen border. And that’s why we decided that in the next few days we will start building technical barriers at our Schengen border with Croatia. Those barriers in the form of a fence will be used only to direct the uncontrolled flow of refugees,” Cerar added.

He made clear that unlike neighboring Hungary, Slovenia would not close its borders for refugees. 

DIFFICULT DECISION

“They will be directed towards reception centers in Slovenia,”  the government leader explained.

However, as a human being, it had been “a difficult decision” the prime minister said, as in his words Slovenia “doesn’t want a Europe with closed borders”. 

Though the new fence threatens to block the Balkan route again just as winter is approaching, the United Nations refugee agency says refugees have been able to find their way around such obstacles. 

Officials are anticipating that asylum seekers may now turn to Albania and Italy as an alternative routes to more prosperous European countries in the north.