After bus trips through Serbia, the migrants crossed fields on foot to enter Croatia, where dozens of police directed them to trains and buses heading to refugee centers in Zagreb and elsewhere. Police assumed the others stayed the night on the Croatian side.

Croatia represents a longer and more arduous route into Europe for the asylum-seekers from Syria and elsewhere fleeing violence in their homelands. We are able to accommodate them: “we can accept up to 10,000 refugees“, Marta Kos Marko said in an interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper.

Despite the setbacks those on board were clear about where they are headed.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann will hold separate talks Thursday with his Croatian and Slovenian counterparts to discuss the possible passage of thousands of migrants through their countries into Austria, his office said.

It was the largest group of refugees to have tried to enter Slovenia since the refugee crisis erupted in Europe, police statistics show.

“Passenger traffic is not operating at the moment”, police spokeswoman Alenka Drenik said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the first phase of the 41-kilometer (25-mile) barrier will be completed on Friday, with coils of razor wire being laid down before an actual fence goes up.

Slovenia expected number of arriving refugees to increase even after border controls were tightened by neighboring Hungary, the diplomat added, Sputnik reports.