Authorities launched 46 criminal prosecutions and the first court cases are due to start later Wednesday.
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Hungarian police fired tear gas and water cannon at protesting refugees demanding they be allowed to enter from Serbia on Wednesday as a border crackdown by Budapest turned violent.
Hungary by cutting the razor-wire fence erected along the Serbian border. Many migrants are facing the tough decision of either waiting to be allowed entry into Hungary, where they face possible rejection, or travel potentially several hundred miles to Croatia or other European countries.
“All the others would like to continue to western Europe“, he said. “You cannot hermetically close a border and we are obviously aware that you can make a detour via Croatia and back into Hungary”.
If an exit into Hungary becomes impossible, the number of refugees here may begin to rise, challenging not only the country’s capacity for dealing with asylum seekers but its citizens’ hitherto admirable tolerance and empathy.
Tens of thousands of migrants have reached Austria in recent days, rushing to cross before Hungary shut the frontier.
“Based on our history, we are always in solidarity with the refugees”, Peter Szijjarto told The Associated Press in an interview.
With the route through Hungary apparently closed, some migrants set out on a longer, more arduous route into Western Europe through Croatia. My wife and children cannot stand on their feet any more.
“All the countries have their domestic problems, but since they are the people fleeing the wars and persecutions, then we must show our compassionate leadership”, he said.
Greek police said some 5,000 people trying to reach Western Europe crossed the country’s northern border with Macedonia over the 24-hour period from Tuesday morning to Wednesday morning.
“We hope that the messages we have been sending migrants for a long time have reached them”, said Gyorgy Bakondi, an aide to Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary. They could go to prison for 3 years, for hopping over a barbed-wire fence from Serbia.
Police warned that migrants coming across open spaces between the two countries could be in danger of walking on still active minefields left over from the 1991-1995 war following disintegration of the former Yugoslavia.
Under its new rules, Hungary said it had determined Serbia was “safe”, and therefore it could automatically deny asylum claims at the border. “Merkel said OK we can come to Germany, why Hungary say no?” he said.
“We just want to pass through their country“, said Amir Kirit, 25, software engineer from Damascus.
“We are ready to accept these people, regardless of their religion and the colour of their skin, and direct them to the destinations where they wish to go, Germany and Scandinavia”, Milanovic told lawmakers in Parliament.
Elsewhere in Europe migrants remained on the move.
A record 156,000 migrants entered the EU in August, the bloc’s border agency Frontex reported, taking the total for the year to more than 500,000.
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Hungary also deployed three military vehicles mounted with guns some 100 to 200 metres (yards) from the border, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
