Slovenia to start building border fence to control entry of refugees

Slovenia's prime minister says that "in the next few days" the country will start building razor-wire fences on the border with Croatia to stem the number of refugees entering the country, but not to stop their arrivals entirely.

"We decided yesterday to start building over the following days on the Schengen (zone) border with Croatia some temporary technical obstacles," PM Miro Cerar told reporters in the capital Ljubljana.

"These obstacles, including fences if needed, will have the objective of directing migrants towards the border crossings. We are not closing our borders," he said.

Slovenia last month suddenly found itself on the main route for thousands of refugees and migrants traveling to northern Europe after Hungary sealed its borders.

Cerar said that the measures come ahead of an expected spike in the number of refugees arriving in the coming days after a recent lull.

"We know right now that some 30,000 migrants are heading from Greece towards the north," he said. "That shows that the commitments from Brussels ... are not being fulfilled. The flow of migrants hasn't reduced nor slowed down."

Cerar has said previously that his small Alpine nation was being overwhelmed by the flow of refugees. Nearly 170,000 refugees and migrants crossed Slovenia since mid-October when Hungary closed its border with Croatia and the flow was redirected to Slovenia.

Meanwhile, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the European Union to secure its external frontiers to slow the number of refugees and migrants entering the EU, saying it could have saved Slovenia from tightening its border.

The situation in Slovenia underlines "the urgency with which we have to work towards a common European solution, and that means securing the external borders," said Merkel. "If the problem on the external border between Turkey and Greece could be solved, then Slovenia would not have had to take such measures."

Merkel said the development in Slovenia also highlighted the urgency of EU President Donald Tusk's decision to hold informal consultations to "find solutions to better protect our external borders", in a meeting to follow an EU-Africa summit on Thursday.

EU states have bickered for months over a joint solution to the continent's worst migration crisis since World War II. The bloc has also sought help from Turkey to better police its border with EU member Greece.

The border has become a key gateway into Europe for Syrians and others fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

Wire services