Migrant Crisis Fuels European Bickering, Border Disputes

AUSTRIA - Border disputes are escalating between eastern European countries struggling to deal with the Middle East migrant crisis.

Countries like Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia have been bickering about border fence violations since Hungary set up barbed wire fences last month to block the migrants from entering.

Many of the migrants have flooded the tiny nation of Slovenia, which has not succeeded in its efforts to keep them out.

Slovenian police say more than 180,000 asylum seekers have entered the country since mid-October, with 10,000 more coming in from Wednesday to Thursday.

Many of them are looking to move on to Austria on their way to Germany. Still, with a small population of 2 million people, Slovenia cannot handle the flood of people.

So far, the civil war in Syria has created upwards of 3 million refugees, and Austria now finds itself at the center of the ongoing crisis as many make their way deeper into Europe seeking asylum.

CBN News recently visited Austria's main refugee center in Traiskirchen, just south of Vienna.

One reporter was surprised to find that the majority of the refugees staying at the former military barracks weren't from Syria, however.

All the refugees CBN News met were from either Afghanistan or Africa. There were very few women, at least that we could see. Most were young men, waiting to be told if they will be allowed to stay in Austria.

Two hours south, near the town of Spielfeld, we visited the refugee processing facility on the border with Slovenia. Here were more women and children, and most were from Syria.

As we were leaving the checkpoint between Austria and Slovenia, we observed authorities moving the refugees out on buses. As soon as the migrants get there, they bus them through Austria to Germany.

Germany has had a problem with that because they call it human trafficking.

Austria is a country of 8 million people, and Germany has 80 million people, so Austria believes Germany should take the lion's share of the burden.

Here at the Spielfeld refugee center, the migrants were quickly moved on to the next location, allowing the people manning the checkpoint to prepare for the next wave of immigrants.