Croatia PM urges Serbia to redirect migrants to ease burden

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic urged Serbia Tuesday to resume directing migrants to Hungary and Romania to help ease the burden on his own country.

Milanovic told reporters it was still possible for refugees to be sent to Croatia, but "my message to them (Serbia) is ... also to send them to Hungary, Romania."

"We are not fools, we see what they (Serbia) are doing," he said.

Hungary sealed its border with Serbia on September 15 to stem the massive influx of refugees fleeing war and poverty in their countries in Middle East and Africa.

After Hungary's move, Serbia started directing migrants to Croatia, a European Union (EU) member.

Zagreb vowed free passage of migrants but said it could only cope with a few thousand and started to transport them by bus and train north towards Hungary.

The migrants were also directed towards Croatia's western neighbour Slovenia.

Nearly 35,000 migrants have entered Croatia during the past six days, official figures showed Tuesday.

On Monday some 5,100 migrants left the country, almost all of them for Hungary, the interior ministry said.

In a bid to press Belgrade to redirect the migrants Zagreb closed truck traffic from Serbia on the only remaining open border crossing between the two countries early Monday.
Croatia had closed seven of its eight crossings with Serbia soon after the migrant crisis spilled over here.

At midday Tuesday, the line of trucks waiting to enter Croatia at the Bajakovo-Batrovci crossing was more than 15 kilometres (nine miles) long.

- 'Sending clear message' -

"This is not good but at this moment we have to send a clear message" to Serbia, Milanovic said, referring to the halting of truck traffic.

But his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic on Tuesday gave the European Commission "a deadline of 2:00pm (1200 GMT) to do something (regarding Croatia's decision) or Serbia will protect itself with certain measures," Beta news agency reported.

It did not reveal details of the measures planned.

Vucic has called an emergency government meeting over the issue for later Tuesday.

Some two hours after the deadline expired, "the border crossing was reopen for all traffic," state-controlled Serbian Tanjug news agency reported, quoting Serbia's finance ministry.
But Croatian government on its Tweeter account said that its customs officials would let across the border only "perishable goods."

Meanwhile, scuffles broke out Tuesday between police and migrants trying to enter a refugee centre by force in eastern Croatia, state-run HRT television reported.

Some 2,000 migrants had arrived overnight in front of the centre after walking across the border with Serbia through a new path through the village of Bapska, near the town of Ilok, some 15 kilometres northeast of Opatovac, HRT reported.

After women and children were let in the tent settlement, men tried to force their way in through the main gate while police called on them to wait their turn, the network said, showing images of police pushing back the migrants. It said the situation later calmed down.

The refugee centre in the village of Opatovac, set up at the weekend, has the capacity for some 4,000 people.

The migrants stay there up to 48 hours, during which they are registered, given food and medical care and then taken by bus or train to border crossings with Hungary.

At emergency talks in Brussels on Tuesday EU ministers tried to hammer out a deal on plans to relocate 120,000 refugees amid deep divisions over how to handle Europe's worst migration crisis since World War II.
Source: AFP