Thousands of Refugees Remain Stranded in Croatia

Thousands of refugees remain stranded on the Croatian border with Serbia, waiting for transport to Slovenia while another 10,000 refugees, coming from Greece, were expected to arrive on the Serbian-Croatian border on Monday morning.

On Sunday afternoon around 5,200 refugees were at the camp at Opatovac in eastern Croatia near the border with Serbia, awaiting transport to the border with Slovenia, in the north of the country. The refugees camp in Opatovac can receive up to 5,000 people.

The reason for the delay is that Slovenia has said that it can receive only up to 2,500 people daily while the number of refugees entering Croatia from Serbia is between 5,000 and 6,000.

After Hungary closed all its informal border crossings with Croatia on midnight on Friday, Croatia decided to organize the transport of the refugees to the border with Slovenia, where they could enter the Schengen passport-free zone and continue their journey towards Germany and northern Europe.

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said on Sunday that the plan to transport the refugees was functioning for now, and that "everything is under control". He added that Croatia was prepared for other scenarios.

On Saturday, a group of 300 refugees were taken by bus to the border with Slovenia and entered the country. Later a train carrying around 1,200 refugees entered Slovenia at the border crossing in Sredisce ob Dravi, while another 600 were transported by bus to border crossings in Mursko Sredisce and Macelj.

The Slovenian authorities have put up a temporary fence and deployed police on the border crossings with Croatia.

The Slovenian interior ministry Secretary, Bostjan Sefic said that Slovenia would only receive new...