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Croatia will continue to redirect migrants to Hungary border: PM

Afghan refugee Mariam Jamshid, 34, from Herat, Afghanistan, cries while talking to a volunteer about her two missing children, after spending the night near an abandoned military barrack in Beli Manastir, northeast Croatia, near Hungarian border Saturday, September 19, 2015.

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Earlier in the day Hungary declared success for its controversial efforts to seal its borders to migrants, as thousands of new arrivals headed into neighbouring Croatia instead.

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.

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.

In a defence of its decision to fence off its frontier and repel migrants with tear gas and water cannon, the Government said the fact that migrants were now seeking other routes into Europe vindicated its strategy.

A group of 200-250 refugees has arrived in Slovenia from Croatia on board the worldwide train between Belgrade and Ljubljana, public broadcaster TV Slovenija reported Thursday evening.

Germany had the highest numbermore than a third of the total – while Hungary received the most applications relative to its population size, the Eurostat agency said.

The migrants have turned to Croatia for a corridor to Western Europe after Hungary used force to push them away from its territory.

The two visited the town of Lendava, located close to the border to Hungary.PM Cerar said that the country had already started preparatory measures to introduce border control to Hungary.

Serbian officials, fearing that the closure would block thousands of migrants inside the country, protested Zagreb’s move. Slovenian police block the crossing for the refugees into the country.

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Serbia’s main highway north into Hungary is already closed by Hungarian riot police on the border. Border police said the migrants did not have the correct papers and would be sent back to Zagreb, the Croatian capital.

Croatia says it can take no more migrants