Migrants Stranded in Croatia Make Efforts to Head North

Migrants stranded in Croatia have been making renewed efforts to head north despite moves by Slovenia and Hungary to hold them back.

Slovenian police used pepper spray on Friday night to disperse a group trying to cross from Croatia.

Hungary, meanwhile, accused Croatia of violating international law after asylum seekers were sent over the border without first being registered.

The EU, which is divided on the crisis, is to hold emergency talks next week.

Overnight, thousands of migrants trying to pass through the Balkans to reach northern EU states spent the night at railway stations or sleeping alongside roads.

Meanwhile, hundreds of people slept on a motorway near Edirne in north-western Turkey, after Turkish police stopped them from crossing the border into Greece on Friday evening. 

As controls have got tighter, many migrants have strayed from transport routes, walking through cornfields to reach borders.

In a day of chaos and confusion on Friday, people were shunted from one border to another as governments remained split over how to handle the crisis.

 

Thousands entered Croatia from Serbia earlier this week after Hungary fenced off its Serbian border and sealed shut the previous route north.

Hungary has taken a tough line on the migrant influx, and has now called up some army reservists to assist, according to state media, quoted by Reuters.

Croatia had initially said migrants would be welcome, but on Friday said it was overwhelmed after seeing 17,000 arrivals since Wednesday. 

It now says it is regulating the flow by shutting some border crossings but will continue to give migrants passage north without making them register as refugees - and even sent a trainload of migrants across the border to Hungary, prompting Hungary to accuse it of violating international law.

"There has not been an agreement with Hungary," Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic was quoted as saying by AFP news agency. 

"We have in some way compelled them to accept the refugees by sending them [to the border] and we will continue to do so." 

Such an approach has angered Slovenia and Hungary, where a government spokesman accused Croatia of "intentional participation in people smuggling" and Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto reportedly called Mr Milanovic's handling of the situation "pathetic".

For its part, Croatia has defended its conduct, with Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic telling the BBC it was behaving "humanely" and saying Hungary's decision to build a fence on its border with Croatia was "not an answer".

 

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