Slovenian police: regional agreement will limit migrant flow

Slovenian police officers guide migrants towards the Austrian border town of Spielfeld, in the village of Sentilj, Slovenia, November 18, 2015. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/Files

LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Police chiefs of Slovenia, Austria, Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia have agreed to limit the flow of migrants to about 580 per day per country, Slovenian police said on Friday. The police chiefs are "obliged to limit daily transit through Western Balkans countries to a number which would enable a control of every migrant according to Schengen rules," the police said on Friday in a statement prepared for Reuters. Around 475,000 migrants have arrived in Slovenia, a small Alpine country, since October, when Hungary closed its border with Croatia and pushed the migrant route west. Most migrants continue on to Austria and other Northern European states. Recently Slovenia, which has two million citizens and is the smallest country on the Balkan migrant route, has seen several protests by local citizens against new centres for asylum seekers. Citizens say they fear the new arrivals may threaten local security. Slovenia has so far erected over 140 kms of fence along its border with Croatia to ease border control. This week it also directed the army to help police prevent illegal border crossings. {ID:nL8N1614MA] So far no major incidents have been reported. (Reporting by Marja Novak; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Katharine Houreld)