Thursday, November 12, 2015

Slovenia is building a razor-wire border fence with Croatia to keep Muslim migrants out


LJUBLJANA, Slovenia — Slovenia began erecting a razor-wire fence at its border with Croatia on Wednesday to stem the inflow of migrants, as winter closes in and countries to the north tighten their own border controls.

A convoy of army trucks carrying barbed wire and construction equipment arrived in the border town of Veliki Obrez at dawn on Wednesday. Soldiers rolled out the wire along the Slovenian bank of the Sotla River, which forms part of the 400-mile [645 km] border with Croatia.

Slovenia is an important country on the migration route through the Balkans because its border with Croatia also forms the southern frontier of Europe’s Schengen area, where passport-free travel is possible.

Since Oct. 17, when Hungary closed its border with Croatia and redirected the flow, more than 180,000 migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia have entered Slovenia, a nation of two million people.

No comments: