Thousands of immigrants piled up and struggled to clear the bottleneck of people Monday at the Slovenian-Croatian border in the West Balkans, which the asylum seekers now call "no man's land." Slovenian authorities were preventing them from entering their territory, while Croatian authorities prevented them from going back to Croatia. This was after Croatia sent a train with 1,800 people to the border in spite of Slovenia's refusal to take them in. These migrants were fleeing from war and poverty and were trying to cross Slovenia to get to Austria and Germany, according to the International Business Times.
Slovenian officials accused the Croatians of breaking previous agreements of limiting the number of transfers to 2,500 people a day.
"It's completely unacceptable," said Vesna Gyorkos Znidar, the Slovene Interior Minister.
Croatia replied that it is also having similarly miserable conditions with 4,000 migrants from Serbia entering its border Monday night. Police placed steel gates in the said area to slow down the flow of people. Out of desperation to cross, children were seen being handed over the security barriers to police.
"We are in cold weather and the place is not good. Our message for the governments is to take into consideration our suffering," said Farouk al-Hatib, a Syrian waiting to cross from Serbia, according to the Daily Journal.
The governments' decision to slow down the flow of people was after Hungary's decision to seal its border from Croatia. But the conditions of the poorly sheltered Serbians worsened, thus forcing people to look for a better place.
"It's apparent that this is no solution, so we will let them through. We will send them toward Slovenia," said Zoran Milanovic, Croatia's prime minister.
Slovenia's Interior Ministry, however, reported it already allowed 5,000 people to enter the border Monday, 900 of them to reach Austria by evening.
"As long as Austria will control the flow of refugees, we will have to do the same on the Slovenian-Croatian border," said Borut Pahor, Slovenia's president, according to the Roanoke Times.
Aid workers, on the other hand, are trying their best to help hand out blue rain ponchos and bags of food to travelers who are suffering from the discomfort of rain and cold, some of them slipping in the mud.
