On Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees urged Europe to make changes, such as establishing reception centers in Greece (where more than 300,000 people have made their first landfall).
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Several countries, including Germany and France, have agreed to take in hundreds of thousands of refugees, though Germany had closed its borders Sunday in order to process the massive number of refugees and migrants already inside the country.
Hungary on Monday closed its southern border with Serbia and police used water cannons, tear gas and batons to beat back migrants, arresting anyone trying to enter illegally. Autho-rities warned them to avoid walking in areas along the Serbian border that were still being demined from the country’s 1991-95 war. “The European Union must know that Croatia will not become a migrant ‘hotspot.’ We have hearts, but we also have heads”.
Slovenia also suspended all train traffic between Slovenia and Croatia until September 18, Slovenian news agency STA reported.
The Hungarian authorities have sent buses to pick them and take them to registration facilities at Vamosszabadi near the Slovak border or Szentgotthard by the Austrian border, Hungarian National Police Force spokesperson Viktoria Csiszer-Kovacs said.
Croatia is struggling to deal with Europe’s migrant crisis.
Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic called on the army to be on alert and act if needed to protect the border from the migrants, after chaos erupted Thursday on the border with Serbia in a rush to get on the few available buses and trains, the AP said.
CNN’s Ivan Watson witnessed a Croatian police officer greeting migrants by saying, “Come on guys, don’t be scared”, before they climbed into a waiting police van.
These were the scenes on Hungary’s border with Serbia on Wednesday night.
Tens of thousands of refugees have been fleeing conflict zones in north Africa and the Middle East fearing they will be persecuted.
With more than 15,400 migrants arriving in just three days, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic declared that his nation of 4.2 million could no longer cope and asylum seekers could not stay.
One of the more desperate situations was unfolding in the eastern Croatian town of Beli Manastir, near the border with Hungary.
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Officials say both countries have suffered economic losses because of the closure.
