Croatia started closing its borders with Serbia as migrants fled from overwhelmed police, trekked through fields and tried to steal into Slovenia by train in a desperate march westwards..
8,000 migrants had trudged across its border from Serbia in one day, driven from trying to enter through Hungary by a metal fence, tear gas and water cannons
Media is overwhelmed with desperate scenes at a railway station on Croatia’s eastern frontier, where thousands were left stranded overnight under open skies.
Our president Kolinda said that we may have to use the army to stop thousands of migrants criss-crossing the Western Balkans in their quest for sanctuary in the wealthy 28-nation bloc. It shuttled some to reception centers near Zagreb, but many simply slipped the net of overwhelmed authorities and set off for the Slovenian border, just 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Croatian capital Zagreb.
There, Slovenian police halted a train carrying some 150 migrants at Dobova train station on Slovenia’s side of the border and said they would be sent back. A Reuters TV crew said some tried to leave the train but were stopped by police. Some refused water in protest..
Hungary’s crackdown has shifted pressure onto Croatia, Slovenia and Romania.
At the eastern border town of Tovarnik, scuffles broke out as Croatian police tried to get women and children to board the buses bound for reception centers near Zagreb. Women screamed and children cried in desperate scenes.
An Iraqi from Baghdad who gave his name as Riad said he had been separated from his wife and child. "Only women and children are now allowed onto buses. My wife and child are gone and they (police) do not allow me to join them. My phone does not work."
Groups of migrants broke away from the police and set off on foot down railway lines and through fields.
"They want to take us to the camps, but we don't want that," said one man as he set off, without giving his name.
Police also took up position in a suburb of the capital Zagreb around a hotel housing hundreds of migrants, some of them on balconies shouting "Freedom! Freedom!". Others threw rolls of toilet paper from the balconies and windows.
"Croatia will not be able to receive more people," Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic told reporters in Tovarnik while suggesting the country would not simply let migrants head north to Slovenia, which is part of the EU's Schengen zone of border-free travel.
Police in Hungary, which is also in Schengen, said about 500 migrants had been detained after crossing into the south of the country from Croatia. There is no fence on that part of the border at the moment but Budapest plans to build one..
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0RD0P420150917
What I find interesting is that these people are not primarily refugees but migrants who are aiming exclusively western Europe countries and they have no intention to remain in Croatia, Serbia, Slowenia,.. although these countries are not affected by the war in any sense and they could certainly find refuge here.
One more interesting fact is that the migrants are in better financial status then most Croats. They all have expensive clothes, glasses, smartphones, use taxi for transportation to the Slovenian border (as in Croatia, one of the most expensive ways of transport).
Croatia was a war-affected country before some 20 years and I remember refugees going to the first safe country not having thousands of euros in pockets and looking at an expensive smartphones where the highest welfare is. Or am I wrong?
I agree that people should help each other always and everywhere, and I will help them myself if I can, but this smells like a great fraud in the background. I'm watching with great interest further development of events.