Come winter and migrants thronging to Europe; who braved police officers, raging rivers, hostile borders
and fences, just might not be able evade, the looming winter.
Perhaps
as soon as late October, the
season will shift in parts of Europe; finger-numbing rain, a fall fixture,
will descend into snow and freezing winds, complicating and even
endangering the arduous journeys of the migrants.
With fall winds carrying the first hints of frost, and the situation
along the borders unresolved, the migrants, aid workers and government
officials are anxiously looking ahead. If the numbers increase
drastically or, worse, if there are more border closings - as with the recent announcement by Hungary that it intended to close its border with Croatia there would be
an almost immediate backup that would quickly repopulate border camps
within a week — some of them open-air, others consisting mostly of
unheated tents.
The
looming threats have kept migrants on the move, hurrying from border to
border to try to reach their destinations, before the winter sets in.
