Record numbers of migrants cross Europe as cold sets in

(Vatican Radio) An increasing number of migrants fleeing war and poverty are crossing the Balkans on their way to Western Europe just hours after European leaders reached an agreement to slow the flow that has heightened tension among nations along the route. Many families are separated amid the chaos, aid workers say.  

Listen to Stefan Bos' report:

With cold weather setting in and record numbers of people arriving, questions remain whether the European Union’s pledged assistance can come quickly enough to make a difference.

Slovenia’s Prime Minister Miro Cerar has even warned that if some immediate and concrete actions on the ground is not delivered within the next few days and weeks the European Union and Europe as a whole will start falling apart.

His tiny nation of some two million has been swamped by more than 60,000 migrants in a matter of days, including here outside the village of Dobova near the Croatian border.

Among them Christian Syrian refugee Baraa Abdulhad, who spent part of her life in the Netherlands and not wants to return with her husband, brother and two children after their home was bombed.

Lack of food

“I don’t know what will happen to us. We are afraid that our children will die because of the cold and a lack of food. I already said this is the end. We may never reach The Netherlands,” she tells Vatican Radio. “We already saw how one baby died in Croatia. I cried out to God and said: ‘I hope that my children will not die’.”

She adds that as a member of the Christian minority in Syria she already experienced difficulties as the Islamic State militants in her words threatened to kill all Christians for not wearing the hijab, a veil that covers the head and chest.

Amid the chaos, many families are separated. Slovenian Red Cross volunteer Mojca Harmandic struggles to reunite them. “We found about 15 families, but that its better than nothing,” she says. “A lot remain missing. It happens for instance when they cross the border and a wife and kid take the bus but the husband continues walking. So many [are] lost,” Harmandic explains.    

More family tragedies are expected: Croatian police said Monday that more than 13,000 migrants arrived from Serbia in the past 24 hours, while Slovenian police reported nearly 10,000 arrivals from Croatia in the same period.

Further west, some 3,500 people had to sleep outside in Austria in cold fall weather, while Germany said it had seen 15,000 arrivals over the weekend