Stunning image shows thousands of migrants making their way into Europe

This extraordinary image graphically illustrates the scale of the migrant crisis facing Europe. A line of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of refugees trudge through fields in Slovenia having crossed from Croatia. European and Balkan leaders agreed early Monday on measures to stem the flow of tens of thousands whose flight from war and poverty has overwhelmed authorities and heightened tension among nations along the route. Croatia’s police said Monday morning more than 13,000 migrants arrived from Serbia in the past 24 hours. About 260,000 passed through Croatia since mid-September when Hungary put up a fence on the border with Serbia, diverting the flow.

The immediate imperative is to provide shelter. It cannot be that in the Europe of 2015 people are left to fend for themselves, sleeping in fields.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker

Meanwhile, the number of places at refugee reception centres is to be increased by 100,000 in a bid to cope with the migration crisis facing Europe. The measure forms part of a plan hammered out by European leaders aimed at managing the influx of migrants through the Balkans as winter looms and the weather turns colder. Greece has committed to opening enough reception centres to house 30,000 refugees by the end of the year, with the United Nations providing a further 20,000 places in the country. The rest will be created in countries to the north along the route to Germany.

Politics