Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


           Thousands of Migrants Stranded Between Serbia and Croatia

   by VOA News

   Several thousand migrants remain stranded Monday along the
   Croatian-Serbian border.  They spent a cold night with little food
   after Hungary shut down its crossing into Croatia Saturday.

   About 2,000 people were sitting inside unheated buses Sunday, waiting
   to cross into Serbia on their way to the European Union.

   Since Hungary closed off its border crossing with Croatia, the buses
   are now forced to take a much longer route through Slovenia. That
   country has decided to limit the number of migrants who can cross each
   day.

   A spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency, Babar Baloch, said Hungary is
   only compounding the hardship of the migrants.

   "The decision by Hungary to close its border has certainly added to the
   suffering and misery and the length of the journey for these desperate
   people. There will be challenges if the process becomes slow or we have
   a backlog of people," he said.

   While Slovenia says it has no plans right now to close its border, it
   is limiting the numbers of those who can cross each day to 2,500 to
   prevent the tiny EU member from becoming overwhelmed.

   "We cannot accept a number of migrants larger than the number of those
   who will continue their journey. In a very short time, maybe in 10
   days, we would have 35,000 migrants in Slovenia which is unacceptable
   for us," Slovene Interior Ministry official Bostjan Sefic said Sunday.

   The EU can expect around 700,000 migrants escaping war and poverty in
   places such as Syria and Afghanistan by the end of the year.

   EU leaders have so far failed to come up with a firm plan on how to
   take care of these people and distribute them equitably among the 28
   member states.

   Many of the migrants arrive in Europe through Greece and Turkey. German
   Chancellor Angela Merkel is offering to help Turkey's stalled EU
   membership efforts if Turkey agrees to do more to control its borders
   and take back some of the migrants turned away from other European
   states.

   Merkel was in Turkey Sunday which is already taking care of more than 2
   million refugees from war. She said the rest of Europe should help ease
   Turkey's burden.

   Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he would sign readmission
   agreements only if there is progress on liberalizing the EU visa regime
   for Turks.
     __________________________________________________________________

   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/thousands-of-migrants-stranded-betwee
   n-serbia-and-croatia/3013323.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/thousands-of-migrants-stranded-between-serbia-and-croatia/3013323.html