2,000 migrants trapped in the rain and cold after Croatia sends them to Slovenia... and refuses to let them turn back when Slovenia bans them from entering

Nearly 2,000 migrants have been left stranded in the rain and cold after Croatia sent them to Slovenia and then refused to let them turn back when Slovenia banned them from entering.

Hundreds of refugees were halted on a train short of the border before Slovenian police barred access to their country using an improvised fence. 

Migrants disembarked and walked along the tracks, wrapped in raincoats or plastic sheeting against the rain. Just 150, mainly families with children, were allowed to cross the frontier, the rest spent the night in the open, warming themselves around open fires. 

Shelter: 2,000 migrants have been left trapped in the rain and cold after Croatia sent them to Slovenia and then refused to let them turn back when Slovenia banned them from entering

A group of migrants cross a border with Croatia, at Sredisce ob Dravi in Slovenia in the early hours of this morning. Hundreds more were forced to camp out in the open

Migrants disembarked and walked along the tracks, wrapped in raincoats or plastic sheeting against the rain. Refugees are pictured as they wait in the rain in Trnovec on the border between the two countries

The Balkans is facing a growing backlog of refugees with huge crowds building up on borders after the closure of Hungary's southern frontier diverted them to Slovenia

Croatian police ordered the migrants off the train, but Slovenian police were deployed to the border and put up iron barriers to prevent a mass entry. For hours, the migrants sought ways to sneak into Slovenia on foot while Croatian police on the other side prevented them from turning back. 

Slovenian police said they would first register women and children from the train and let them into the country, while the rest remained stranded out in the open on a field amid driving rain. 

The border incident has caused a diplomatic spat between Croatia and Slovenia, with Slovenia accusing Croatia of breaching an earlier agreement that only 2,500 people can be transported into the country each day.

See more of the latest news and updates on Europe's refugee crisis

Refugees used blankets hooked on to fences as they tried anything to keep warm and dry amid dismal conditions on the border of Croatia and Slovenia

But Slovenia, a country of two million people, has imposed a daily limit of around 2,500, saying it will only take in as many as can exit into Austria

A migrants carries a child through the rain in no-man's land while others shelter from the elements in the background as they wait to criss into Slovenia

About 2,000 people, many armed just with light waterproof tops to protect them from the elements, are stranded in desperate and deteriorating conditions

Hundreds were forced to camp out in the muddy fields surrounding the border last night after being ordered off a train

Upwards of 5,000 people are flowing across Balkan borders daily, from Greece into Macedonia and Serbia, both poor former Yugoslav republics with barely the capacity to cope

After Austria denied it is restricting the flow, Slovenia's interior minister said her country can handle up to 2,500 migrants a day and criticised Croatia for transporting more than the agreed figure to their border, saying it is 'absolutely unacceptable'.

Vesna Gyorkos Znidar said that Croatia has started to send an 'unlimited number of migrants ... which we can't accept.'

She said 'the Croatian side is not responding' to the Slovenian demands to control the flow and is acting only as 'a transporter' of migrants.  

The Balkans is facing a growing backlog of refugees with huge crowds building up on borders after the closure of Hungary's southern frontier diverted them to Slovenia. 

In further desperate scenes, several thousand people, many of them Syrians fleeing war, spent the night on the muddy ground of no-man's land between Serbia and European Union-member Croatia.

After Hungary closed its border with Croatia to migrants on Friday, the unrelenting flow - en-route to Austria and Germany, the favoured destination - has been diverted to Slovenia.

But Slovenia, a country of two million people, has imposed a daily limit of around 2,500, saying it will only take in as many as can exit into Austria, forcing Croatia too to ration entry from Serbia with its own refugee camps full to capacity. 

Upwards of 5,000 people are flowing across Balkan borders daily, from Greece into Macedonia and Serbia, both poor former Yugoslav republics with barely the capacity to cope.

'We don't have any more raincoats,' said Dr Ramiz Momeni, director of the UK-based Humanitas Charity, helping out on the Serbia-Croatia border.

'There's a bottleneck of people that can't get anywhere so they have to stay here in the rain. Some of these people have been here under sheets for 12 hours. Of course, they're going to get sick.' 

Hundreds of migrants were left waiting in the mud on the border between Serbia and Croatia, after police put up gates to control their influx

Croatian police ordered the migrants off the train, but Slovenian police were deployed to the border and put up iron barriers to prevent a mass entry

Slovenian police said they would first register women and children from the train and let them into the country, while the rest remained stranded out in the open on a field amid driving rain

Slovenia's interior minister said her country can handle up to 2,500 migrants a day and lashed out at Croatia for transporting more than the agreed figure to their border, saying it is 'absolutely unacceptable'

Migrants wait in the rain at the closed Croatian-Slovenian border crossing in Trnovec, Croatia. They have been waiting in dismal conditions for hours in the hope of entering the country on the next stage on their journey to Austria, Germany or Sweden

Slovenia said Austria was accepting a maximum of 1,500, far fewer than were previously entering from Hungary, but a spokesman for the Austrian Interior Ministry denied Vienna had set any limit.

'People were fighting last night for a tent; we were sitting under blankets and we are now wet and cold,' said an Iraqi man called Idris, waiting in the rain to enter Croatia from Serbia.

The arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees this year to Europe's shores, fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia by boat across the Mediterranean and Aegean, has exposed deep divisions in the EU.

The Balkans is increasingly struggling with a growing backlog of migrants as thousands of people wait at cold, wet borders

Migrants use rescue blankets and rain coats as they shelter under a tree on the border with Croatia and Slovenia at Trnovec

A refugee carries her child in a protective yellow sheet as she looks for shelter from the lashing rain at the soaking border crossing

Tensions boiled over on the border with Serbia and Croatia as refugees fought each other near the village of Babska earlier today

On the Croatia-Serbia border, some of the migrants, who were stranded there overnight after Croatian police block their movements, were seen handing over their children to Croatian police across metal barriers

Hungary's right-wing government says the mainly Muslim migrants pose a threat to Europe's prosperity, security and 'Christian values', and has sealed its borders with Serbia and Croatia with a steel fence and new laws that rights groups say deny refugees their right to seek protection.

The EU has agreed a plan, resisted by Hungary and several other ex-Communist members of the bloc, to share out 120,000 refugees among its members. 

It is also courting Turkey with the promise of money, easier EU travel for Turks and 're-energised' accession talks if Ankara tries to stem the flow of migrants across its territory.