Migrants stranded at Balkan borders

Thousands of migrants again streamed into the Balkans yesterday where tighter border controls caused tense bottlenecks, as Germany braced for anger at an anniversary rally of the anti-refugee PEGIDA movement.

Europe's unprecedented influx has seen asylum seekers -- mainly fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan -- travelling via Turkey, Greece and the western Balkans, hoping to seek safe haven in Germany and other EU states.

Tensions have built along the migrant trail after Hungary shut its key borders with razor wire -- diverting the flow west to Slovenia, which in turn also limited arrivals, as did Croatia.

Thousands of refugees yesterday waited in cold and heavy rain at one of the chokepoints, Berkasovo on the Serbia-Croatia frontier, where families huddled around fires and children walked barefoot in the mud.

"This is beyond our capacity," said Czech volunteer Jan Pinos. "There is no one from the authorities here. We need police, army, some tents, food."

He warned of "increasing tension" and desperation among pregnant women and children, including a baby that nearly died overnight in the chaos.

More than 15,000 crossed from Greece into Macedonia at the weekend, said local authorities. From there, the UN refugee office said, 10,000 marched on into Serbia overnight.

Two days after a man with a neo-Nazi background stabbed a pro-refugee politician in the neck, badly wounding her, Germany's anti-refugee PEGIDA movement was planning a mass rally to mark its first anniversary.

Police expected thousands to join the "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident" demonstration in Dresden in the former communist East, as well as a large antifascist counter-protest.

The movement had all but vanished after pictures surfaced in January showing its co-founder Lutz Bachmann sporting a Hitler moustache, but it has made a comeback since September, when Merkel opened the doors to a surge of asylum seekers.

Angry protesters have accused her of "treason" and last week carried a mock gallows with Merkel's name on it.

The chancellor yesterday again urged people to "stay away from those with hate in their hearts," her spokesman said.

Merkel, hoping for Turkey's help in slowing the migrant influx, held talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Sunday.

The EU wants Turkey to tighten border security and house more refugees in return for billions in financial help, visa liberalisation for Turkish citizens and an acceleration of its stuttering drive for EU membership.

But Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said yesterday his country would not host migrants permanently to appease the EU.

"We cannot accept an understanding like 'give us the money and they stay in Turkey'," he said. "Turkey is not a concentration camp."

"As for fresh resources, we're talking about a 3 billion euro amount in the first stage. But we don't want to fixate on this because the requirements may go up, and the assessment for this would need to be done annually," Davutoglu said.

Merkel on Sunday offered Turkey the prospect of support for faster progress on its bid to join the European Union in return for cooperation in stemming the flow of migrants and taking back those rejected by Europe.