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Migrants remain trapped in southeast Europe

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.

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Since Wednesday morning more than 7,000 refugees have entered Croatia from Serbia after Hungary closed its border.

A Hungarian police spokesman said the migrants were being taken to two Hungarian registration points in Szentgotthard and Vamosszabadi – both close to the Austrian border.

Hungary started construction on a new fence along its southern border Friday while Croatia announced it was closing border crossings with Serbia to stem the influx of migrants.

Croatia says of those registered there so far, 60% were refugees and 40% economic migrants.

The refugees began heading for Croatia after Hungary sealed its border with Serbia earlier this week, cutting off a key route into the European Union used this year by more than 200,000 refugees, many of them fleeing violence in the Middle East and Afghanistan. “The European Union must know that Croatia will not become a migrant hotspot”.

(Vatican Radio) Thousands of Syrian and other refugees have been dumped by Croatian authorities near the Hungarian border.

But the EU Migration Commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, says he hopes the summit succeeds in convincing reluctant eastern European states to sign up to a quota system for the distribution of refugees. Authorities warned them to avoid walking in those areas along the Serbian border that are still being demined from the country’s 1991-95 war.

“Croatia is not interested to be a country where the migrants will seek what they can get in other countries where they are now”.

In an echo of the language adopted by David Cameron earlier this month, he added: “We have hearts, but we also have heads”.

Angry police try to control thousands of exhausted refugees sitting on grass fields and crowding patrol stations along the road of this Croatian border town of Beli Manestir.

“Croatia will not be able to receive more people“, Ostojic told reporters in Tovarnik.

Clashes between migrants and Hungarian riot police broke out Wednesday afternoon after people frustrated at being blocked from the country pushed open a gate at the border.

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“If they had not done so, given that Serbia is a safe country, they will be rejected”.

Hungarian police use pepper spray against migrants at the Horgos border