Slovenia, Austria Keep Borders Open Despite Closure Plans

Slovenia and Austria threatened to close the border, they did not do it officially, but the fences have already been put in place, according to the Serbian interior minister.

BELGRADE (Sputnik) — Slovenia and Austria still keep borders open despite the declared intention to close them, the Serbian interior minister said Tuesday.

On Monday, the Serbian national TV broadcaster RTS reported that Serbia had received the information on Slovenia and Austria closing borders in the future.

"Slovenia and Austria threatened to close the border, they did not do it officially, but the fences have already been put in place. The Slovenian Interior Ministry has informed Croatia that the capacity was decreased by 2,000 people per day. We can not agree that it solves the problem. What is there to do if 8,000 people per day come to us but we can pass only 2,000," Nebojsa Stefanovic said on RTS.

The Serbian Foreign Ministry told RIA Novosti earlier that it did not have information from Slovenia and Austria on the planned borders closing.

The European Union is currently struggling to manage a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people leaving conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa for Europe. Over 1.2 million illegal border crossings have been detected by the EU border agency Frontex since the beginning of 2015.