Blocked from Hungary, migrants knock on Croatia’s door

By Jorgen Samso

ŠID, Serbia — Serbia’s border with Hungary has turned into a fenced barrier guarded by police and troops, so migrants seeking to get into the EU have shifted destination and are now trying to make it past the frontier with Croatia.
Groups of five came by taxi and busloads of around 50 people were dropped off near the sleepy town of Šid on the western Serbian-Croatian border. Two double-deckers pulled in from Preševo near the Macedonian border and from Belgrade, the Serbian capital.

Barkat Shah, a 23-year-old from Jalalabad in Afghanistan, picked the new route through Croatia after spending two days trapped in the no-man’s-land along the Hungarian border.
“Hungary’s border is closed forever,” he said, walking down the dirt road towards an unofficial border crossing close to Croatian town of Tovarnik with his two friends, Moussa, 20,  and Mahdi, 18.
“We were 10 friends traveling together,” he said. “Five of them got arrested in Iran and sent back, two got shot and killed, also in Iran. We were told that the Serbian government would take us here because Croatia said they were welcoming the refugees. Then we decided to go.”
But the welcome they are getting in Croatia isn’t quite the open road to Germany they were hoping for.

“We follow the rules of the European Union” — Ranko Ostojić, Croatia’s interior minister. 

“Don’t be afraid. Wait for our vehicles,” said a police officer wearing a baseball cap and a polo shirt. “We will transport you to the police station where you will get water and food, and will be registered.”
By Wednesday night, 1,304 refugees had been registered in Croatia and were ready to move on in buses and trains towards the capital Zagreb. They were to be transported to three different reception centers in hotels in the vicinity of Zagreb. One hotel can house 800 people, another one 1,200, said Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojić during a visit to the police station in Tovarnik.
The refugees will not be permitted to continue to travel deeper into the EU.
“They are not allowed to go,” said Ostojić. “They can claim asylum and are free to wait in Croatia on the decision. If we get more people we will have more reception centers … We follow the rules of the European Union.”

Trapped in Serbia

The next EU country in line is Slovenia, part of the EU’s open-border Schengen zone. Many refugees had thought that if they got to the small and mountainous country, they would then be able to continue unmolested on to Germany.But Slovenian Interior Minister Vesna Györkös Žnidar said her country, also abiding by EU rules, wouldn’t simply let refugees pass through and would not create a “safe corridor” for them.
That means the growing number of migrants in Serbia face increasingly bleak prospects in the quest to make it to northern Europe. And their presence is creating domestic and foreign policy problems for Serbia.
Clashes between thousands of angry migrants and Hungarian authorities, who used water cannons and tear gas to dispel the crowds, sparked a heated diplomatic exchange between Serbia and Hungary.
Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia’s labor minister, was at the border and complained about Hungary firing tear gas on to Serbian territory.
“No state has the right to do that, and therefore I lodge the strongest protest,” he said.

“I’m just waiting now. I don’t know where to go” — Patrick Mokwa, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Hungary defended the use of force at the border and said at least 20 police officers were injured.
The closure of the Hungarian border is forcing Serbia to set a logistical operation in motion to deal with the refugees stuck in the country. Serbia has asked the EU, which it wants to join, for further economic assistance. Serbia and Macedonia have already received €1.7 billion to help deal with the surge in asylum seekers, many of whom are living in makeshift camps in Belgrade.
The problem is going to get worse. Serbia registered 1,630 refugees in Preševo, close to the southern border with Macedonia, on Wednesday evening alone. They are going to want to continue moving north. By noon on Thursday, Croatian police had registered more than 6,200 people over the previous 24 hours.
After midnight, hundreds of refugees boarded an 11-car train waiting to depart to Zagreb. Groups of people slept on the floors of the train cars. Others, like Patrick Mokwa from Goma in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were awake and hanging out of the window smoking cigarettes, looking out at the warm yellow light of the train station.
“I’m just waiting now. I don’t know where to go,” he said. “Maybe one country will accept me.”