|
 Helpless to stem the flow, Croatian police rounded them up at the
Tovarnik railway station on the Croatian side of the border, where
several thousand had spent the night under open skies. Some kept
traveling, and reached Slovenia overnight.
Migrants have been streaming into Croatia for two days, their path
to western Europe via Hungary blocked by a metal fence, the threat
of imprisonment and riot police who fired teargas and water cannon
on Wednesday to drive back stone-throwing men.
Hundreds evaded Croatian police, trekked through fields and reached
the border with Slovenia by train on Thursday, part of a desperate
and determined march westwards that is dividing Europe.
Only the main Bajakovo crossing, on the highway between Belgrade and
Zagreb, appeared to be open to traffic on Friday, while Slovenia
stopped all rail traffic on the main line from Croatia.
 Around 150 migrants spent hours overnight stranded at the Dobova
railway station on Slovenia's side of the border. Police first said
they would be sent back, but then the train proceeded to the town of
Postojna, some 50 km (30 miles) southwest of the capital Ljubljana,
where there is a refugee center.
Slovenia, which unlike Croatia is a member of Europe's Schengen zone
of border-free travel, said it had turned back roughly another 100
who tried to cross from Croatia under cover of night.
The two former Yugoslav republics suddenly find themselves on the
path of a huge migration of people westwards from war and poverty in
the Middle East, Africa and Asia, the scale of which has sowed
discord and recrimination in the European Union. On Wednesday, the EU called an emergency summit for next week in a
fresh bid to overcome disarray in the 28-nation bloc.
Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic warned on Thursday that
Croatia would close its border with Serbia if the flow of migrants
continued at the same rate, saying his country was full to capacity.
The president of Croatia told the military to be ready to join the
effort to stop thousands of people criss-crossing the Western
Balkans in their quest for sanctuary in the wealthy bloc.
Hungary's right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, said on Friday
Hungary had begun work overnight to extend a fence along its
southern border with Serbia to the Croatian section, after police
said hundreds of migrants had entered from Croatia.
Orban said 600 soldiers were working on a 41-km stretch and a
further 500 would be deployed on Friday and 700 more over the
weekend.
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SERBIAN WARNING
Late on Thursday, Croatian police announced they had banned all
traffic at seven border crossings. “The measure is valid until
further notice,” police said in a statement.
Serbia's main highway north into Hungary is already closed by
Hungarian riot police on the border.
Much of the Croatian-Serbian border follows the Danube river, making
it difficult to cross outside the official border crossings. But at
Tovarnik, migrants simply walked through fields.
"We are so exhausted," said Hikmat, a bare-footed 32-year-old Syrian
woman from Damascus, who said she had been traveling for two months
with her son. "Look at me. I just want to get anywhere where we will
be safe," she said.
"We see them, but we pretend not to," said a Serbian police officer.
Serbia warned its neighbors against shutting down the main arteries
between them.
"We want to warn Croatia and every other country that it is
unacceptable to close international roads and that we will seek to
protect our economic and every other interest before international
courts," Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia's minister in charge of migration,
told the Tanjug state news agency.
Authorities in Croatia shuttled some of the migrants to reception
centers near Zagreb, but many broke away or simply slipped the net
of overwhelmed police and set off for the Slovenian border, just 30
km (18 miles) from the Croatian capital.
Slovenia said police had stepped up checks in the border area with
helicopter and land patrols. The government there says it will
enforce EU rules that asylum seekers remain in the country where
they first entered the bloc, and "illegal immigrants" be deported.
In Tovarnik on Thursday, scuffles broke out as Croatian police tried
to get women and children to board buses to reception centers near
Zagreb. Women screamed and children cried. Many refugees refuse to
be sent to reception centers, arguing they should be allowed to
continue their journey to western and northern Europe.
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."
(Additional reporting by Marja Novak in Ljubljana and Kriztina Than
in Budapest; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Dominic Evans)
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