Serbian officials, fearing that the closures would confine too many refugees inside their country, protested against Croatia’s move.
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Huge numbers have surged into Croatia since Wednesday, after Hungary erected a barbed wire-fence on its border with Serbia and took other tough measures to stop migrants, including spraying crowds at the border with tear gas and water cannons and arresting hundreds trying to cross in illegally.
Croatia represents a longer and more hard route into Europe, but those fleeing violence in their homelands appear to have little choice.
Meanwhile, Hungary began building a fence on its borders with Croatia, similar to the one they completed on their border with Serbia earlier this week.
“They will have to get off at Hegyeshalom anyway”, a police officer was overheard telling a colleague, in reference to a town on Hungary’s border with Austria.
After attempts to send the train back to Croatia, the migrants were relocated to the center of the country, to await a decision on their fate.
European Council President Donald Tusk summoned EU leaders to a summit on Wednesday to discuss how to better manage external EU borders and help Turkey, through which numerous migrants are passing, as well as other states that are housing Syrian refugees.
Croatia has closed all but one of its border crossings with Serbia.
The migrants are unlikely to stay long in Croatia. Still, the country’s prime minister insisted that the country was not sealing off its border and would not do so. Smaller groups started walking along the rail tracks, but police turned them back, promising that a train would be there soon.
Nearly every country in Europe has become affected by the crisis as Sweden reported more than 1,000 new arrivals daily, with 5,214 people applying for asylum in the seven days to Tuesday.
The train’s seizure is the latest development in a spat between Croatia and Hungary which has left the fate of thousands of migrants uncertain. Both have reinstated border checks.
“What else can we do?” he said at a news conference.
Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations Commissioner of Human Rights, criticised Hungary for its treatment towards refugees, describing it as callousness and a “clear violation of worldwide law”.
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Asked whether Croatia could redirect people toward Slovenia, Milanovic noted that “Hungary is three times closer”. Most plan to travel on, passing through Slovenia and then Austria en route to their final destination, which for most is Germany or the Scandinavian countries.
