2015-10-29 19:00:00

Refugees clash near Austria’s border as winter sets in


(Vatican Radio) Clashes have broken out among migrants fleeing war and poverty at an overcrowded refugee camp on Slovenia's border with Austria where water, food and medical supplies are scarce or even sold for high prices. The violence also came amid confusion over when and if Austria will build a fence to halt the ongoing influx of refugees.

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:

Amid the ongoing chaos, Berlin police in Germany said they detained a suspect in the disappearance earlier this month of a 4-year-old Bosnian migrant boy, and have found the body of a child in the suspect's car. Police said the 32-year-old man, who wasn't identified, was arrested Thursday morning, but cautioned they are trying to confirm the identity of the dead child. 

Back at the Slovenian-Austrian border, police tried to restore calm among thousands of people queuing for hours in cold weather at the Šentilj refugee camp near the Austrian border. Witnesses said police pulled out a man who allegedly tried to cut a line of people waiting to cross into Austria. 

The process has been very slow, with men and exhausted women and children arriving in large numbers. Authorities on both sides only allow small groups of refugees to cross at a time. Adding to their misery is a lack of basic supplies. 

Refugees say they are being overcharged for even basic items needed to survive. “We’re waiting here at the border for many hours, and the Slovenian people are selling pizzas,” a man complained. 

SELLING MEDICAL SUPPLIES

Mohammed, a Syrian, said he’s been seeing the same over the past 20 days. People,are even selling medical supplies at much higher prices than usual, he added.

Others say there is a lack of international aid agencies and basic supplies with only the police visible, despite low temperatures. “There is no water, no food. Today is winter. UNICEF is nowhere. There is only Slovenian police,” said Rashed, also from Syria. 

He and others may also fear that time is running out amid confusion over when and if Austria will built a fence to keep refugees out. 
Austria’s Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said Wednesday that the country will build a fence along its border with Slovenia to slow the flood of refugees heading to northern Europe.  

But later in separate remarks Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said fences were not welcome in the European Union. 

MORE FENCES?

Slovenia’s government had already warned it would be ready to built a fence along the border with its other neighbour Croatia if a 
European Union plan to reduce the movements of refugees through tighter border controls fails.

Slovenian police say more than 100,000 refugees have entered the small alpine nation in less than two weeks. 

Asylum-seekers hoping to reach Western Europe turned to crossing Slovenia after Hungary closed its border with Croatia with a barbed-wire fence.

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto defended on Thursday the controversial anti-migration fence saying the EU needs to wrest back control of its borders and dismissed the criticism as "hypocritical". 

He urged the international community to increase its fight against the Islamic State group in Syria  said the EU should send a “European force" to help Greece protect its vast sea borders with Turkey, from which thousands of people cross daily into Europe. 








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