Croatia closes border crossings, but migrants keep coming

Saturday, 19 September 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

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Migrants continued to stream through fields from Serbia into the European Union on Friday, undeterred by Croatia’s closure of almost all road crossings after an influx of more than 11,000.

Helpless to stem the flow, Croatian police rounded them up at the Tovarnik railway station on the Croatian side of the border, where several thousand had spent the night under open skies. Some kept travelling, and reached Slovenia overnight.

Migrants have been streaming into Croatia for two days, their path to western Europe via Hungary blocked by a metal fence, the threat of imprisonment and riot police who fired teargas and water cannon on Wednesday to drive back stone-throwing men.

Hundreds evaded Croatian police, trekked through fields and reached the border with Slovenia by train on Thursday, part of a desperate and determined march westwards that is dividing Europe.

Only the main Bajakovo crossing, on the highway between Belgrade and Zagreb, appeared to be open to traffic on Friday, while Slovenia stopped all rail traffic on the main line from Croatia.

Around 150 migrants spent hours overnight stranded at the Dobova railway station on Slovenia’s side of the border. Police first said they would be sent back, but then the train proceeded to the town of Postojna, some 50 km southwest of the capital Ljubljana, where there is a refugee centre.

Slovenia, which unlike Croatia is a member of Europe’s Schengen zone of border-free travel, said it had turned back roughly another 100 who tried to cross from Croatia under cover of night.

The two former Yugoslav republics suddenly find themselves on the path of a huge migration of people westwards from war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, the scale of which has sowed discord and recrimination in the European Union.

On Wednesday, the EU called an emergency summit for next week in a fresh bid to overcome disarray in the 28-nation bloc.

Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic warned on Thursday that Croatia would close its border with Serbia if the flow of migrants continued at the same rate, saying his country was full to capacity.

The president of Croatia told the military to be ready to join the effort to stop thousands of people criss-crossing the Western Balkans in their quest for sanctuary in the wealthy bloc.

Hungary’s right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, said on Friday Hungary had begun work overnight to extend a fence along its southern border with Serbia to the Croatian section, after police said hundreds of migrants had entered from Croatia.

Orban said 600 soldiers were working on a 41-km stretch and a further 500 would be deployed on Friday and 700 more over the weekend.

Late on Thursday, Croatian police announced they had banned all traffic at seven border crossings. “The measure is valid until further notice,” police said in a statement.

Serbia’s main highway north into Hungary is already closed by Hungarian riot police on the border.