Naharnet

Slovenia Wants to Cap Daily Migrant Arrivals at 580

Slovenia said on Friday it wants to limit the daily number of migrants entering at 580, in line with an agreement between police chiefs of countries along the Balkan route.

"All police chiefs (from the region) who attended the February 18 meeting committed to respect the cap of around 580 migrants per day," Slovenian interior ministry spokeswoman Vesna Drole told AFP.

Serbia and Croatia, which had attended last week's police meeting along with Slovenia, Austria and Macedonia, confirmed Friday that Slovenia had asked them to respect the limit and not allow more people through.

"Last night we received information from the Croatian police, which they had been given by Slovenian (authorities), that starting from today (Friday) they will implement a new regime and will not accept more than 500 people a day," Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic told the private broadcaster Pink.

Croatia meanwhile said it had "a new request from Slovenia not to send them more than a train daily", according to local media.

The restrictions come in response to Austria last week introducing a daily cap of 80 asylum-seekers and saying it would only let 3,200 migrants pass through each day.

The tighter controls have left thousands of people stranded in Greece, the main entry point into the EU for most migrants and refugees.

The crisis shows no signs of abating, with 100,000 arriving in Europe so far this year on top of the one million who made the journey in 2015, mostly across the Aegean Sea from Turkey to the Greek islands.

Source: Agence France Presse


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