Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said earlier on Thursday that Croatia would close its border with Serbia if the inflow of refugees again hits 8,000 people a day.
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More than 11,000 people have entered Croatia since Wednesday, when Hungary completed a razor-wire fence along the border with Serbia to keep the flow of migrants under control.
But Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said the country had “limited capacity” after the country closed its borders.
A police statement said they would be registered, without giving details. And Hungary has started building a fence on its border with Croatia, in addition to two others along its borders with Serbia and Romania.
Serbian officials, fearing the closure in Croatia would trap thousands of migrants inside the country, protested against Zagreb’s move.
“Croatia cannot take this burden and will not accept it while others turn their heads from it. People will not be able to remain in Croatia”.
Scuffles broke out when some of the migrants broke through the police lines. Hungary’s government has taken a hard stance toward the issue, with Prime Minister Viktor Orban complaining in a recent interview there would eventually be “more Muslims than Christians in Europe“.
According to The Independent, Croatia had no choice but to put up the barriers on the borders. Majority want to go there.
“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.
Migrants talk at the railway station in Beli Manastir, near Hungarian border, northeast Croatia, early Friday, September 18, 2015.
The move came after Slovenian authorities detained 150 refugees who crossed the border from Croatia on Thursday evening. “Why are they keeping us here?” said Syrian Abdullah Janabi, 22.
Refugees have been flooding across the Croatian border and ABC News was there with them as they faced their new reality. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called Hungary’s use of water cannons and tear gas unacceptable. “We have hearts, but we also have heads”. “Not even for transit purposes”.
The European Union has been struggling with an influx of refugees as hundreds of thousands try to enter the bloc, fleeing violence and poverty in their crisis-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
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They were met by heavily armed Hungarian security forces in the border town of Beremend, who ordered them back onto the buses.
