Angry refugees demand to leave

Tempers rise after a fire starts at border camp, triggering protests from the occupants

Tempers are starting to fray among the tens of thousands of migrants trying to get through the Balkans to the heart of Europe after braving the rain and cold.

When a fire at the main refugee camp on Slovenia's border with Croatia destroyed a dozen lime-green army-issue tents on Wednesday, scores of young migrants nearby chanted: "Let us go! Let us go!"

While the government said it was still investigating the cause, police said that migrants had set a stack of blankets on fire deliberately to protest conditions in the camp on the outskirts of Brezice.

Many of those demanding to leave the Slovenian border town for Austria and Germany had waded the previous night through the Sutla River, which marks the border between Slovenia and Croatia.

Sometimes in pitch dark, at other times aided by light from a police helicopter's searchlight, more than 1,000 refugees strode chest-deep into the muddy waters on the Croat side and struggled up the muddy embankment into Slovenia.

Many migrants from war-torn nations in the Middle East, such as Iraq and Syria, expressed bewilderment and disappointment because they had been told as they began their journeys in Turkey that the hard part would end once they reached EU countries.

They had expected other countries to permit them free passage to Western countries, particularly Germany.

"I am sorry for Europe," said Ari Omar, an Iraqi, who was resting in a Slovenian pasture a few hundred meters from the border with Croatia. "We did not think Europe was like this: no respect for refugees, not treating us with dignity. Why is Europe like this?"

More than 21,500 people have crossed that frontier in the five days since Hungary - the previous favored EU entry point for migrants crossing the Balkans - closed its borders with Croatia and forced the human tide further west into Slovenia.

This Alpine country of 2 million said it cannot cope with the volume of refugees and is appealing for EU aid.

Lawmakers passed an emergency bill permitting Slovenia's military to operate more freely along the border, and about 200 troops were deployed on Wednesday.

Slovenia's Interior Secretary of State Bostjan Sefic said troops would have greater freedom to tackle crowd-control tasks because the country did not have enough police for the job.

AP - AFP