Closing the gap: Moment of despair for refugees shut out of Hungary

When the moment came on Monday, it was sudden. Burly Hungarian police stepped in, the razor-wire was uncurled and Europe got a new hard barricade along its southern border.

For the last fortnight, a small 30-40 metre (100-130 foot) gap in the new fence between Serbia and Hungary has been the unofficial entry point for thousands of migrants and refugees heading north into the European Union.

There had been a desperate rush to make it across before Hungary sealed the fence. The 5,809 people who crossed the border on Sunday smashed the previous day's record of 4,330.

For those who just missed the deadline, it was an agonising moment of frustration, despair and confusion -- just one more to add to their gruelling journeys away from poverty and war.

As a line of policemen in blue uniforms blocked their path and workers threaded barbed wire into place at the Roszke crossing, a backlog of refugees started to build on the Serbian side.
Together, they formed a sadly familiar picture of tragedy: an elderly man in a wheelchair; children in pushchairs; a woman in a tight black scarf, a baby in her arms, bursting into tears.

"We had heard the Hungarians were closing their border, but they told us it would be Tuesday," cries Hassan, a Syrian in his thirties who is trying to reach Sweden.

Staff from the UN refugee agency struggled to mediate.

"We tried to see what was happening and they told us to stand back," said Babar Baloch, a UNHCR spokesman at the border.

"This gap in the fence was being used by thousands of people walking into Hungary -- around 2,000 just today -- and then suddenly it was shut with little explanation. Clearer communication would have helped," he added.

- A new crossing? -

For a while, there was confusion. Then, word started to spread of another entrance a kilometre or two along the border. Soon, hundreds of migrants were following the coils of wire down the line.

What they found was a more official crossing in the town of Roszke, manned by dozens of police, some with riot gear, others on horses, as a helicopter buzzed overhead.

Normally a road crossing, it had been narrowed with concrete blocks into a thinner passage.
UNHCR staff watched helplessly from behind a fence on the Hungarian side.

Then, a cheer went up from the crowd of refugees as police started letting people through in ones and twos.

The lack of information was still frustrating for migrants and aid agencies, but there was relief that the border was not entirely closed.

"There are big holes in the communication, but if people have to come through an official designated gate, that is fine," said Baloch.

"We just hope they do not turn away any asylum seekers."

New laws coming into force on Tuesday allow Hungary to arrest and even jail illegal entrants -- which the UN has said could amount to a breach of international law.

But Hungary is also deeply reluctant to absorb all the asylum seekers that arrive at its borders, and it emerged on Monday that it was loading thousands of migrants on to trains and taking them directly to the Austrian border.

By nightfall, around 1,000 migrants were gathered at the new official entrance on the Serbia-Hungary border. Some expressed their anger at the slow movement, but the atmosphere was generally calm.

After another day of changing rules and exhausting journeys, the only certainty is that more challenges lie ahead for the thousands on the move through Europe.
Source: AFP