Reuters, Budapest :
The European Union’s migration chief rebuked Hungary on Thursday for its tough handling of a flood of refugees as asylum seekers thwarted by a new Hungarian border fence and repelled by riot police poured into Croatia, spreading the strain.
Croatian police said more than 5,000 migrants had arrived from Serbia since Hungary sealed its southern EU border with Serbia on Tuesday. Hungarian security forces fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse rock-throwing refugees on Wednesday.
“Maybe the border to Croatia is open, maybe it is closed, but we are going to try,” said a Syrian man at the Serbian border town of Sid who gave his name as Abed, one of the many who had given up
hope of crossing from Serbia into Hungary.
Several thousand migrants gathered at the Tovarnik railway station on EU-member Croatia’s side of the border with Serbia, sitting or lying by the tracks trying to shade themselves from the sun.
“I just want to go,” said Syrian Kamal Al’hak. “I may return to Syria, but only in a few years. It’s too dangerous there now.”
The head of Germany’s Office for Migration and Refugees resigned for personal reasons after being criticised for being slow in processing applications from a record number of asylum seeks. German police said the number of refugees arriving in Germany more than doubled on Wednesday to 7,266.
Deep differences over how to cope with the influx of people mostly fleeing war and poverty in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have triggered a chain of beggar-thy-neighbour actions among European countries, sparking a crisis in the 28-nation EU.
EU commissioner for migration Dimitris Avromopoulos told a joint news conference with Hungary’s foreign and interior ministers that most of those arriving in Europe were Syrians “in need of our help”.
“There is no wall you would not climb, no sea you would not cross if you are fleeing violence and terror,” he declared, saying barriers of the kind Hungary has erected were temporary solutions that only diverted refugees and migrants, increasing tensions.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto hit back at criticism from U.N. and European officials and human rights groups, saying that siding with rioting migrants, who pelted Hungarian police with rocks in clashes that injured 20 police, was encouraging violence.
The European Union’s migration chief rebuked Hungary on Thursday for its tough handling of a flood of refugees as asylum seekers thwarted by a new Hungarian border fence and repelled by riot police poured into Croatia, spreading the strain.
Croatian police said more than 5,000 migrants had arrived from Serbia since Hungary sealed its southern EU border with Serbia on Tuesday. Hungarian security forces fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse rock-throwing refugees on Wednesday.
“Maybe the border to Croatia is open, maybe it is closed, but we are going to try,” said a Syrian man at the Serbian border town of Sid who gave his name as Abed, one of the many who had given up
hope of crossing from Serbia into Hungary.
Several thousand migrants gathered at the Tovarnik railway station on EU-member Croatia’s side of the border with Serbia, sitting or lying by the tracks trying to shade themselves from the sun.
“I just want to go,” said Syrian Kamal Al’hak. “I may return to Syria, but only in a few years. It’s too dangerous there now.”
The head of Germany’s Office for Migration and Refugees resigned for personal reasons after being criticised for being slow in processing applications from a record number of asylum seeks. German police said the number of refugees arriving in Germany more than doubled on Wednesday to 7,266.
Deep differences over how to cope with the influx of people mostly fleeing war and poverty in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan have triggered a chain of beggar-thy-neighbour actions among European countries, sparking a crisis in the 28-nation EU.
EU commissioner for migration Dimitris Avromopoulos told a joint news conference with Hungary’s foreign and interior ministers that most of those arriving in Europe were Syrians “in need of our help”.
“There is no wall you would not climb, no sea you would not cross if you are fleeing violence and terror,” he declared, saying barriers of the kind Hungary has erected were temporary solutions that only diverted refugees and migrants, increasing tensions.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto hit back at criticism from U.N. and European officials and human rights groups, saying that siding with rioting migrants, who pelted Hungarian police with rocks in clashes that injured 20 police, was encouraging violence.
