Croatia Closes Border Crossings With Serbia to Control Migrant Flow

BELGRADE (Sputnik) – This leaves only one out of eight crossings on the Croatian-Serbia border operational, the Croatian Interior Ministry said on Thursday, adding that the measure is temporary.

The situation at the Serbian-Hungarian border turned violent after Budapest enforced strict border rules on Tuesday to curb the inflow of asylum seekers. Hundreds were involved in clashes with Hungarian border police who used tear gas and water cannons to disperse crowds of frustrated migrants.

The Hungarian M1 channel reported on Thursday that several hundred migrants had succeeded in crossing from Croatia into Hungary.

Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said on Thursday that his country could not take in any more undocumented migrants as the closure of the Serbian-Hungarian border and the penalties introduced by the Hungarian government for border crossing violations have prompted thousands of migrants from Serbia to travel via Croatia and Slovenia.

Slovenian Deputy Interior Minister was quoted as saying by local media on Thursday that most of the migrants who had arrived in Croatia would have to stay there, despite the fact that Croatia, like Slovenia, is a transit country that migrants pass in order to get to Northern and Western Europe, particularly Austria and Germany.

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. Many migrants had been using Serbia as a transit zone to Hungary and further to wealthier EU countries but now this route has shifted to Croatia and other neighboring countries.