Croatia Closes 7 of 8 Border Crossing Points with Serbia

Croatia has closed seven of its eight border crossing points at the Serbian border.

The largest border crossing point, Bajakovo-Batrovci, is still open.

The temporary closure of the border crossing points is aimed at reducing the influx of refugees arriving in the country from Serbian territory, according to reports of the Bulgarian National Radio.

According to official statistics of the local authorities, 11 000 refugees entered Croatia in less than a day. The Interior Ministry of the country says the number of migrants having entered since Wednesday has reached 13 000 as of 8:00 CEST.

Croatia is experiencing difficulties related to the oversight, accommodation and transportation of these people to transit centers or borders of nearby countries.

Meanwhile, Serbian Labor Minister Aleksandar Vulin underscored that the country would protect its economic and other interests and threatened to take steps to initiate a lawsuit at an international court due to the closure of the border.

Earlier Slovenia stopped the movement of trains along the main railway line from Croatia after police stopped a train carrying around 150 refugees.

Slovenian police said that the refugees stopped at Dobova train station would be returned to Croatia as soon as possible.

Meanwhile the Slovakian Parliament overwhelmingly rejected the mandatory quota system for the distribution of migrants in EU countries proposed by the European Commission.