Saturday 17 October 2015

'We are protecting the freedoms of European citizens': Hungary defends closing its Croatian border as several busloads of migrants reaches Slovenia Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

  • Hungary closed border with Croatia last night, forcing migrants to Slovenia
  • First bus has arrived on Slovenian border where migrants will be registered
  • Slovenia has cancelled all trains from Croatia to stem the tide of migrants
  • 383,000 migrants from Middle East, Africa, Asia entered Hungary this year
  • More on Europe's migrant crisis: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/migrantcrisis


  • Hundreds of migrants trapped in Croatia have reached the Slovenian border after Hungary shut its border with the country last night.
    Buses carrying more than 600 have already arrived at the border crossings of Gruskovje and Petisovci, Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said.
    Hungary, which also built a 110-mile-long barb wire fence along its border with Serbia, said it closed the crossing to 'protect the freedoms' of European citizens.
    The blockade at the Hungary-Croatia border forced thousands of migrants to divert to Slovenia, home to two million people, where the new arrivals will be registered before 'most of them' are transferred to the Austrian border.
    Slovenia cancelled all trains from Croatia so migrants could not enter the country that way. Experts fear the move will leave thousands of migrants stranded in Croatia, which is 'ill-equipped' to deal with them.

    On their way: Migrants are registered in Lendava after crossing the Croatian-Slovenian border today
    On their way: Migrants are registered in Lendava after crossing the Croatian-Slovenian border today
    Waiting: Migrants wait in Gruskovje, on the Croatian-Slovenian border, before they are transferred by bus to Austria
    Departures: Migrants board a bus at a registration centre on the Croatia-Slovenia border which will take them to Austria
    Desperate: A young migrants girl stands ankle-deep in mud, as thousands of them begin trudging towards the tiny county of Slovenia
    Slovenia said it would ramp up border controls and create entry points for migrants to come into the country, but promised to keep accepting them as long as Austria and Germany kept their borders open.
    Croatia, which expects to transport more than 2,400 migrants to its border with Slovenia today, said it would close its border if others did the same.
    Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said: 'Slovenia will not close its border unless Germany closes its border, in that case Croatia will have to do the same.' 
    The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said 300 migrants had been brought to Petisovci while another 300 were taken to Gruskovje, both on the Croatia-Slovenia border.
    UNHCR spokeswoman Caroline van Buren said: 'They are being registered by police and then taken to a refugee camp in Sentilj, close to the Austrian border.
    Van Buren said the majority of people being registered were refugees from Syria and Iraq, adding: 'They are fleeing from war... They are literally running for their lives.'
    Croatian railway authorities said a train carrying 1,800 migrants had left the border area and was due to arrive in the northern town of Cakovek, on the Slovenian border, at 2.30pm GMT.
    The numbers expected to arrive would be a first for Slovenia which only saw around 3,500 migrants arrive over past month after it reinforced border controls in mid-September.
    Hungary closed the Croatian border in a bid to block tens of thousands of refugees and migrants from reaching their desired destination of Germany via Budapest and Austria
    Blockade: Hungary, which has also erected a 110-mile-long wire fence along its border with Serbia, shut the crossing from Croatia (pictured) last night

    Hungarian police allowed around 1,500 migrants to trudge across the Zakany crossing into their country before sealing the border at around 1am (11pm GMT) last night.
    Omar Thaqfa, a 33-year-old refugee from the embattled Iraqi city of Mosul, said: 'We have been in cold since two in the morning in Serbia. We were sitting in the street. Very cold. I am going to Germany.'
    The migrants and refugee with the right documents can still seek asylum in European countries but economic migrants will be unable to cross freely into Europe.  
    Hungary's shut-down came as an EU deal with Turkey, designed to help migrants looked on the brink of collapse.
    Turkey accused Europe of offering up too little money to defuse the crisis, which has seen around 600,000 mostly-Syrians land on Europe's shores this year, and said the plan to stem these arrivals was 'just a draft'.
    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: 'They [Europe] announce they'll take in 30,000 to 40,000 refugees and then they are nominated for the Nobel for that. We are hosting two and a half million refugees but nobody cares.'
    He also urged the EU to take Ankara's bid for EU membership more seriously, saying: 'They keep saying: 'We can't do without Turkey'. Then why don't you let Turkey in the EU?'
    Erdogan's foreign minister said the EU's initial proposals for any deal were 'unacceptable' and said his country needed at least £2.2billion in the first year. 

    Turkey did agree to tackle people smugglers, cooperate with EU border police and stem Syrian refugees reaching Greece by sea as part of a tentative deal.
    In exchange, European leaders promised to speed the process which would allow Turkish people to obtain visas to Europe more easily and give the country more money to tackle the migrant crisis.
    EU leaders did not specify how much money they would give Ankara but said the £2.2billion demanded would be a 'problem'.
    While the EU summit was underway, an Afghan refugee was shot dead as he tried to cross Turkey's border into Bulgaria, in what the United Nations said was the first incident of its kind.
    He was among a group of 54 migrants who were spotted by police near the south-eastern town of Sredets.
    Officials said he was wounded by a ricocheting bullet after border guards fired warning shots into the air, when the unarmed migrants tried to resist arrest.
    Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev said he 'deeply regrets' the shooting but said it showed the need for 'rapid common European measures' to tackle the crisis.
    More than 3,000 migrants have died trying to get to Europe this year, with most of them drowning in the Mediterranean.
    Hungary's decision to close its border with Croatia came soon after EU leaders in Brussels failed to agree on a plan to send EU forces to stop migrants from reaching Greece
    Experts feat that many migrants will now be stranded in Croatia, which is ill-prepared to provide for them in large numbers.
    Lydia Gall, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Budapest, said: 'There is no way Croatia can cope with ... accommodating and providing for the immediate needs for these people.
    'Within days you would end up having tens of thousands of people in Croatia and further down the Western Balkan route, in Serbia and Macedonia.'
    Hungary's fellow members of the so-called Visegrad Group —  Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia — are sending dozens of soldiers, police and equipment to support Hungarian forces guarding the border with Croatia.
    Hungarian officials said their cooperation would be an example to the rest of the EU regarding joint border protection.
    Since Hungary erected the fence on the Serbian border, hundreds of migrants have breached the barrier, which is considered a criminal offence.
    On Friday, 16 men accused of entering Hungary illegally were tried in a court in the southern city of Szeged.
    One of those men, Rajab Al Khalil, said he was trying to reach Germany after escaping the ISIS terrorists controlling his hometown.
    The 28-year-old from Mosul said: 'I did not know which country I was in until I saw the Hungarian flag on the uniform of police. If I can leave, I will never come back here.'


    Although Croatia is also a member of the European Union, unlike Hungary it is not part of the Schengen zone of passport-free travel 
    Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said the border, reinforced with a razor-wire fence, was closed after leaders refused to approve a plan to send EU forces to stop migrants getting into Greece
    Thousands tried to rush through Croatia and across the border before Hungary closed the border at midnight, and those who didn't make it through may be left stranded on their way to western Europe

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