 |
Debris covers the ground after clashes between migrants
and Hungarian police at the "Horgos 2" border crossing
into Hungary, near Horgos, Serbia
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ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — The latest developments as
European governments rush to cope with the huge number of people moving across Europe. All times local (CET):
10:50 p.m.
A Hungarian
official says 40 Croatian police officers have been disarmed and registered
after crossing the border without prior notice while escorting a train with
1,000 migrant into Hungary.
Gyorgy Bakondi,
Prime Minister Viktor Orban's homeland security adviser, said Friday that the
train was seized and its conductor placed in police custody, while the migrants
were sent to registration centers where they may request asylum.
Government
spokesman Zoltan Kovacs denied statements by Croatian officials claiming the
transport of migrants to Hungary
had been coordinated and agreed on by the two governments.
Kovacs said the
migrants arriving from Croatia
were "coming toward the border without prior consultation, without
respecting official channels."
___
10:05 p.m.
Slovenian riot
police have pepper sprayed about 500 migrants on a bridge along the Croatian
border.
The migrants were
at the Harmica border crossing Friday night, demanding to be let into Slovenia
but were blocked by a line of about 50 riot police. As migrants pushed and
shoved to break through the police line, they were pepper sprayed.
The asylum-seekers
were staying near the border crossing over the Sutla River,
washing their eyes out with water.
___
9:35 p.m.
Croatian police say
17,089 migrants have entered the country in the last three days, part of a
massive influx of people heading toward Western Europe.
Police said Friday
that Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic has scheduled a meeting with local
officials in the crisis-hit region near the border with Serbia.
Croatia has said it was overwhelmed by the
influx and was letting people move on toward Slovenia
and Hungary.
___
9:25 p.m.
Slovenia's prime minister says establishing a
transit corridor for migrants through the small Alpine nation toward Western Europe is an option if the influx becomes
overwhelming.
Prime Minister Miro
Cerar said Friday that Slovenian authorities are in contact with neighboring
countries like Croatia.
Hundreds of
migrants have entered Slovenia
from Croatia since Thursday,
but the numbers are expected to rise after more than 17,000 people poured into
neighboring Croatia
in just three days.
___
8:25 p.m.
In the latest moves
in Europe's migrant crisis, Croatia
has sent hundreds of people to Hungary
by train, and the Hungarians in turn have boarded them onto another train that
apparently was headed to Austria.
Croatian
authorities, who have also used buses to quickly help migrants pass through
their country, said 810 people were on the train.
One migrant told
The Associated Press they were being taken to Austria. Authorities would not
confirm that.
The AP saw
Hungarian officials unloading people from the Croatian trains one by one in the
Hungarian border town of Magyarboly.
Without looking at their documents or registering them, they then loaded the
people onto different trains.
The Hungarian
special forces handling the migrants carried rifles and had trucks with
automatic grenade launchers.
___
8:05 p.m.
German Chancellor
Angela Merkel has discussed the migrant crisis with Croatia's prime minister and both
agree "the problem must be solved at the European Union's external
borders."
The German
government statement also said Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic told
Merkel on Friday about Croatia's efforts "to comply fully with its
obligations" in making sure all refugees are being treated humanely.
Germany has been among those pushing for new
"hot spot" camps in Greece
and Italy,
where migrants would be registered.
From EU member Greece, migrants seeking safety in Europe cross Macedonia and Serbia
then re-enter the EU in Hungary
or, most recently, Croatia.
Many want to settle in Germany.
___
7:50 p.m.
Slovenia says it has summoned the Croatian
ambassador after Zagreb said it will let
migrants proceed toward the border with Slovenia
en route toward Western Europe.
Slovenian Foreign
Minister Karl Erjavec said Friday that Croatian ambassador Vesna Terzic has
been notified that his government is not honoring the EU rules on migration.
Croatia says it is overwhelmed by
the influx of more than 15,400 people in three days and cannot record them all.
Slovenian police
say hundreds of migrants have entered the country from Croatia in the past 24 hours and
they are being registered. Slovenia
has also suspended railway traffic with Croatia to prevent migrants from
arriving on trains.
___
7:45 p.m.
About 500 people
have gathered on the Croatian border, chanting and demanding to be let into Slovenia,
while 50 Slovenian riot police on the other side are keeping them out.
The asylum-seekers
who gathered Friday at the Harmica border crossing, some with children on their
shoulders, are shouting "We're going to Slovenia!" and "Freedom!
Freedom!" The border crossing is a bridge across the narrow Sutla River
in the southern part of the country.
Croatia is trying to move along the 15,400
people who have arrived in the country over the past few days, but Slovenia
does not want to let them in. Most want to move on to countries like Germany and Sweden.
___
7:20 p.m.
A former Hungarian
prime minister says video footage shows that Hungarian police opened a gate at
the border with Croatia
and then attacked migrants who tried to go through.
Ferenc Gyurcsany
said Friday he believed the police attack Wednesday was carried out
"without a doubt" on direct orders of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Gyurcsany said
videos from international and Hungarian sources show the migrants walking
across the gate shouting "Thank you! Thank you!" before police closed
ranks and drove them back with tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons,
hitting some with batons.
Government
officials have denied that police opened the border gate and call the clash an
"armed attack against police" by rock-throwing migrants.
___
7:05 p.m.
Officials from Serbia and Hungary say they hope the main
border crossing between the two countries will reopen soon after it was shut
down following clashes between migrants and Hungarian border police.
Serbia's Interior
Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said Friday after talks with Hungary's Foreign
Minister Peter Szijjarto that the Horgos crossing on the main highway
connecting the nations could open for traffic "as soon as tomorrow."
Officials say both
countries have suffered economic losses because of the closure.
Hungary shut down the main border crossing after
using tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons to repel migrants seeking to
enter the country from Serbia
on their journey toward the rich Western European nations.
___
6:55 p.m.
Slovenia has extended a suspension of railway
traffic with Croatia
that was introduced after scores of migrants entered the country on an
international passenger train.
The Slovenian
Railway company said Friday that the suspension will be in force until 6 a.m.
Saturday (0400GMT). Officials had initially planned to resume railway traffic
Friday afternoon.
Slovenia apparently wants to prevent the
migrants from arriving into the country by train, after some 14,000 people flooded
into Croatia
in just a few days. About 150 migrants who arrived in Slovenia on a Switzerland-bound
train on Thursday have been taken to a refugee center for registration.
Slovenia has said it would return the migrants
to Croatia.
It says providing a corridor for migration is against the rules of the EU's
visa-free travel zone.
___
6:45 p.m.
Macedonia's parliament has approved
a government proposal extending a state of emergency on the country's northern
and southern borders until mid-June next year due to the refugee crisis.
Interior Minister
Mitko Cavkov said Friday the decision followed predictions that the flow of
asylum-seekers will continue to pressure the borders with Greece and Serbia.
Macedonian police
said more than 83,000 have transited through the small Balkan nation in the
last three months. Cavkov said 300,000 had passed through this year.
"We are facing
an extremely complex problem that has shown that no country has sufficient
capacity to solve alone," Cakov said, adding that Skopje had appealed for a global solution.
"Unfortunately, there is no such a solution yet. . Each country is left
alone trying to deal with the problem."
___
6:40 p.m.
Greece's caretaker government says work has
almost been completed on a new reception center in northern Greece for asylum-seekers.
Macedonia-Thrace
Minister Philippos Tsalidis briefed the prime minister Friday on progress of
the work in the Idomeni border area, from which those arriving in Greece from Turkey attempt to cross and head north
toward more prosperous parts of the European Union. He also gave an update on
the construction of a new center near the northern city of Thessaloniki.
Prime Minister
Vassiliki Thanou, whose roughly three-week term ends after Sunday's election,
said all necessary infrastructure and equipment for the refugee reception
center had been secured and would be at the disposal of the government that
emerges from the Sept. 20 ballot.
___
6 p.m.
Hundreds of
migrants have been stopped by Turkish law enforcement on a highway near the
Turkish border city of Edirne,
causing a massive traffic jam.
The migrants, who
have been camping out for days in a bid to cross into EU nations Greece or Bulgaria, had been told earlier by
Edirne Gov. Dursun Ali Sahin that 200 of them would be allowed to visit the
Greek border.
"There you can
say everything to the press and cameras," he said. "But this crossing
is not possible."
But the migrants
were stopped Friday after setting out for reasons that remain unclear. Repeated
calls to the Edirne
governor's office went unanswered.
In Istanbul,
hundreds of migrants continued to camp out a large mosque near the city's
Esenler bus station in the hope of joining their compatriots in Edirne. Anis Issa, a
22-year-old from Aleppo,
said police weren't letting anyone in or out.
___
5:45 p.m.
Hungarian police
have posted photographs and are searching for the alleged leaders of clash on
the Serbian border in which dozens of people were injured.
A police statement
Friday in Hungarian, English, German and Arabic asked for information about the
men, one of whom used a megaphone to apparently give instructions to the crowd.
Police used tear
gas and water cannons to push back hundreds of migrants who tried to break
through a checkpoint Wednesday on the Serbian border.
Migrants threw
rocks, water bottles and other objects at police, injuring 20 officers, two
seriously, while police used batons against some migrants.
Journalists covering the riot were also injured.
___
5:25 p.m.
Europe's migration affairs commissioner says
a "great effort" is being made to reach a consensus in Europe over how to deal with the continent's migrant
crisis.
Dimitris
Avramopoulos, speaking Friday in Athens after
meeting with Greek caretaker Prime Minister Vassiliki Thanou, said Greece
"is still under pressure" but the situation at the country's entry
points had improved.
Avramopoulos
admitted the last EU interior ministers' meeting was not successful and that
four countries disagreed with proposals for each nation to receive a quota of
asylum seekers.
He says "a
great effort is being made now ... for them to understand that the time has
come for them to act in a European way."
___
5:15 p.m.
German authorities
plan to set up tents for up to 5,000 people at a military facility in Bavaria where newly
arrived migrants could be taken temporarily before being distributed to more
permanent accommodation.
Bavarian Interior
Ministry spokesman Stefan Frey said the plan is to put up the tents in a few
days' time at the barracks in Feldkirchen, near the town of Straubing. He said they could be used as a
"waiting area" for migrants newly arrived at the border in case extra
accommodation is needed for newcomers.
Germany has been a prime destination for the
thousands of migrants arriving in Europe.
___
5 p.m.
Hungary's foreign minister says the behavior of
neighboring Croatia's
prime minister in the handling of the migrant crisis is "pathetic."
Hungarian Foreign
Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a statement Friday that instead of criticizing
Hungary, Croatian Prime
Minister Zoran Milanovic "should say what he did wrong during preparations
for the arrival of migrants and why Croatia was unable to tend to the
migrant after a single day."
Szijjarto said that
instead of abiding by EU rules, Croatia
was encouraging thousands of migrants to cross the border illegally, which Hungary
now considers a felony.
Hungary has begun to build a fence on the border
with Croatia and will set up
a "transit zone" near the village
of Beremend where migrants entering
from Croatia
can request asylum.
__
4:30 p.m.
The German
government has moved quickly to appoint a new head of the national immigration
authority.
Interior Minister
Thomas de Maiziere announced Friday that Frank-Juergen Weise will become
president of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, which has been
criticized for backlogs in processing asylum applications. He described Weise
as one of Germany's
"best public managers."
His predecessor
stepped down Thursday.
Germany expects some 800,000
migrants to arrive this year, with some estimates as high as 1 million, which
would be around five times last year's total.
___
4:20 p.m.
Hundreds of
refugees, mainly from Iraq,
have poured into Finland
from Sweden
in recent days.
Jaana Vuorio, head
of Finland's
immigration agency, said 11,263 people have sought asylum this year. She said
on Thursday alone, 521 people — the highest number yet — had entered via Sweden.
Up to 30,000 asylum
seekers are expected in Finland
this year, compared to 3,651 last year.
___
4 p.m.
Croatia has begun transporting migrants across
the border to Hungary
after the Croatian prime minister said his nation has been overwhelmed by
14,000 migrants in the last two days.
Nineteen buses
carried migrants across the border Friday to Beremend, Hungary,
where they were put on Hungarian buses. It was not clear where they were headed
next.
Earlier, migrants
arriving from Croatia were
taken to a reception center in Hungary.
Those asking for asylum will have their requests decided quickly, per a new law
this week, while the rest could be sent back to Croatia.
The developments
come as a huge wave of people fleeing violence in their homelands are trying to
pass through the Balkans en route to Western Europe. None of the Balkan
countries are willing or prepared to handle the crisis and have been trying to
close off their borders, pushing the problem onto their neighbours.
___
3:50 p.m.
The Vatican
says a Syrian refugee family has taken up residence in the tiny Roman Catholic
city-state, as promised by Pope Francis.
The Vatican said Friday the family of four arrived
in Italy on Sept. 6, the day
Francis appealed to Catholic parishes, convents and monasteries to each take in
a family fleeing conflict and pledged the Vatican itself would take in two
refugee families.
The family belongs
to the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, an Eastern rite church, and has already
submitted an asylum application with Italy. They will remain guests of
the Vatican
while it is being processed.
The Vatican
had no details yet on the second family.
___
3:40 p.m.
The European
statistics agency says 213,200 people have applied for asylum in the European
Union in the second quarter of 2015, with Germany receiving more than a third
of the new arrivals.
Eurostat says the
number of people seeking refuge was 85 percent higher than a year earlier, and
up 15 percent on the first three months of the year.
Syrians and Afghans
together made up a third of all asylum applicants.
For those three
months, Germany
took in the biggest share, 38 percent of all applicants. Hungary had 15 percent, Austria had 8 percent and Italy, France
and Sweden
each had 7 percent.
Just under 400,000
people applied for asylum in the EU in the first half of 2015.
___
3:20 p.m.
Croatia has sent buses full of migrants to Hungary
just hours after the country's prime minister said it could not cope with the
influx. But Hungarian police met the convoy of 19 buses in the border area and
refused to let them cross in.
Associated Press
reporters on both sides of the border watched the standoff Friday afternoon.
After more than
14,000 people surged into Croatia
in just two days, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said they could not stay and
would be redirected toward Hungary
and Slovenia.
Those two nations
have also moved to keep migrants out, however.
___
2:45 p.m.
The Swiss
government is offering to take in up to 1,500 refugees under a European Union
plan to redistribute 40,000 people around the continent.
Switzerland isn't a member of the
European Union but is part of the Schengen passport-free travel area. The
government said Friday that it's prepared to take in up to 1,500 people who
have already been registered in Italy
and Greece,
the main points of arrival.
The EU decided
earlier this year to redistribute 40,000 people seeking refuge in overwhelmed Greece and Italy. However, it is still
squabbling over proposals for EU nations to share out another 120,000 refugees.
Switzerland indicated that it would
be prepared to take part in that program.
___
2:45 p.m.
European Union
Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn says the bloc will not leave Balkan
countries to deal with the refugee crisis on their own.
Addressing the Macedonian parliament in Skopje Friday, he said all
EU countries "have the task to protect the external borders."
Macedonia has seen tens of thousands of migrants
cross from its southern border with Greece
to its northern border with Serbia
as they head to the more prosperous EU countries of the north. Macedonian
police said that more than 83,000 have transited through the small Balkan
nation in the last three months.
"You are not a
parking lot for refugees, you are also victims of the situation and we won't
leave you alone," Hahn said.
The commissioner was to visit the southern border area with Greece
Saturday.
___
2:15 p.m.
The U.N. refugee
agency is warning of a "buildup" of migrants in Serbia as its neighbors tighten
their borders to the influx of people fleeing war and poverty.
Adrian Edwards of
UNHCR says "the crisis is growing and being pushed from one country to
another" as roughly 4,000 people pour into Greece each day and head north. He
says stricter border controls by Hungary
and Croatia threaten a
bottleneck in Serbia,
"which is not a country with a robust asylum system."
Speaking Friday,
Edwards said: "You aren't going to solve these problems by closing
borders."
UNHCR says more
than 442,440 people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Europe
this year, and 2,921 have died trying. The International Organization for
Migration puts those figures at 473,887 and 2,812 respectively.
___
1:45 p.m.
French Prime
Minister Manuel Valls says the European Union must take control of its borders
or the European Schengen agreement for passport-free travel across the
continent "will be challenged."
Valls says it is
urgent to find an agreement on permanently relocating refugees, saying Europe currently is facing "an unprecedented
migration."
Valls says the EU
must also decide on a policy for returning people who left their home countries
for economic reasons and don't qualify for asylum.
He spoke Friday in Stockholm where he met his Swedish counterpart Stefan
Lofven ahead of a meeting on migrants in Vienna.
Both called for a
solution where "all countries in the EU share their responsibility,"
Lofven said.
___
1:35 p.m.
A spokesman for the
United Nations refugee agency has called for a joint European response to the migrant
crisis, saying countries cannot cope individually.
Babar Baloch,
regional spokesman for Central Europe for the
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Friday that his organization is
capable of handling the humanitarian response to the migrant crisis, but
"what's missing is a collective EU action."
Baloch says that
"within three days we can put in place mechanism for refugee
arrivals," or "empty our warehouses in Dubai,
Copenhagen and
other places."
He adds "we
know how to do the job, but the responsibility, the moral and legal
responsibility here is on the countries in the European Union." Countries
"need to do it together," he says.
___
1:20 p.m.
Hungary's government spokesman says Croatia's decision to redirect migrants entering
the country toward Hungary
and Slovenia
is "totally unacceptable."
Zoltan Kovacs told
The Associated Press on Friday that although Croatia knew exactly what it would
be confronted with, its "supply system collapsed in a single day. Hungary
has been holding its own for the ninth consecutive month."
Croatian Prime
Minister Zoran Milanovic said earlier that Croatia's capacities were full and
the authorities could no longer register migrants in accordance with EU rules.
Kovacs said it was
"totally unacceptable for a European country to not respect European rules
just because it was unprepared," predicting that Croatia would be "set back by
many years" in its efforts to join the EU's Schengen zone of passport-free
travel.
___
12:40 p.m.
Croatian Prime Minister
Zoran Milanovic says Croatia
cannot and will not close its borders, but will redirect people toward Hungary and Slovenia
and further toward Western Europe.
It wasn't
immediately clear how that would solve the situation because both Hungary and Slovenia are taking steps to keep
migrants out.
Milanovic said that
Croatia's
capacities are full and that the authorities no longer can register people in
accordance with EU rules. He said the country will let them pass through and
suggested it will transfer them to its borders, primarily the Hungarian border.
Milanovic said:
"What else can we do? You are welcome in Croatia
and you can pass through Croatia.
But, go on. Not because we don't like you but because this is not your final
destination."
___
12:25 p.m.
German security
officials say Islamic extremists are reaching out to migrants with the aim of
recruiting them.
The head of Germany's
domestic intelligence service said in an interview published Friday that
"we can see that Salafists are presenting themselves as benefactors and
helpers."
Hans-Georg Maassen
told the Rheinische Post daily that the Salafists are "specifically
seeking contact, issuing invitations to visit notorious mosques, in order to
recruit refugees for their cause."
Security officials
estimate that some 7,500 people in Germany subscribe to Salafism, a
strict interpretation of Islam that rejects many modern democratic rights.
___
12:00 p.m.
German officials
say trains carrying migrants may be diverted past Munich in the coming days to prevent a clash
with the city's annual beer festival.
Some 6 million
visitors are expected to come to Munich
for the Oktoberfest, which starts Saturday and runs through Oct. 4.
A spokesman for Munich police says special
trains bringing migrants from the border may also be taken to a separate train
station, or police could escort migrants arriving at the city's main station
past the crowds of tourists.
Peter Beck told The
Associated Press on Friday that he doesn't expect migrants to go to the
festival grounds themselves.
Some 1,600 migrants
came to Munich
on Thursday, and another 300 arrived in the city Friday morning.
___
11:50 a.m.
Slovenia's government has scheduled a meeting of
its security council as the small Alpine nation braces for an influx of
migrants from Croatia.
Authorities expect
thousands of people will attempt to cross into Slovenia
on Friday after more than 13,000 entered neighboring Croatia in little over two days.
Most migrants want
to move on toward Western Europe. Slovenia's
Prime Minister Miro Cerar has ruled out creating a north-bound corridor for the
migrants.
Slovenia has said it will return migrants coming
in from Croatia.
Dozens attempting to cross have already been held up by Slovenian police.
___
11:10 a.m.
Czech police and
military will conduct a joint drill to be ready to deal with a possible
increased numbers of migrants.
The drill will be
conducted along the country's borders and will include hundreds of service
members with planes and helicopters.
Interior Minister
Milan Cjovanec says its goal is "to test the ability of the forces to
cooperate in crisis situations."
Friday's
announcement comes three days after Prime Minster Bohuslav Sobotka said his
government is ready to deploy the armed forces to protect the country's borders
against migrants.
Czech police
already boosted its presence on the Austrian-Czech border on Sunday in response
to Germany's decision to
renew border controls along its border with Austria. But the Czechs haven't
renewed border checks yet.
___
11:00 a.m.
Five German soccer
clubs say they are boycotting a show of solidarity for refugees this weekend.
SC Freiburg, VfL Bochum, 1. FC Nuernberg and 1. FC Union Berlin said on their
website that players won't be wearing special patches promoted by German daily
Bild.
Bochum and Nuernberg said they are distancing
themselves from the event because of the newspaper's criticism of another
club's refusal to take part.
FC St. Pauli, whose
fans are traditionally left-wing, said earlier this week that it has long
supported refugees and didn't want to participate in Bild's event.
The initiative was
announced earlier this week and involved players carrying a patch on their left
arm saying "We're helping, (hashtag)refugeeswelcome."
___
10:50 a.m.
Germany's foreign minister says it
may be necessary to force Eastern European countries to accept quotas for
migrants.
Frank-Walter
Steinmeier says in a newspaper interview published Friday that Germany, Austria,
Sweden and Italy can't bear all the burden of migrants
coming to Europe.
But some countries,
mostly in Eastern Europe, have opposed
consensus on the distribution of migrants according to pre-determined quotas.
Steinmeier told the
Passauer Neue Presse daily that "if there is no other way we need to
seriously consider using the instrument of a majority decision."
___
10:40 a.m.
Treading slowly
through vast areas of cornfields, groups of migrants have been entering Croatia despite the move by authorities to shut
down almost all official border crossings with neighboring Serbia.
Some 2,000 people
have gathered in the eastern Croatian border town of Tovarnik waiting for bus or train rides to
the refugee centers. One train with eleven carriages left Friday morning
carrying hundreds to refugee centers in the capital Zagreb and elsewhere.
Those still in
Tovarnik are sitting of lying on the ground. Some are sleeping, others standing
in groups, chatting and discussing what to do next.
Croatian police
have been taking the migrants to the asylum centers for registration, but most
want to move on toward Western Europe.
Hundreds of those fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia
have been converging near the train station in the capital, Zagreb.
___
9:50 a.m.
Hungary's Prime
Minister Viktor Orban says that his country has started building a razor-wire
fence along a stretch of its border with Croatia to keep migrants from entering
the country in that area.
Orban says the
first phase of the 41-kilometer (25 mile) barrier will be completed on Friday,
with coils of razor wire in place before an actual fence goes up.
He said on state
radio that he is deploying hundreds of soldiers and police to the border to
prepare the fence and defend the border.
Earlier this week Hungary sealed off its southern border with Serbia
with a 4-meter (13-foot) high razor-wire fence and began arresting migrants who
try to enter the country. Baton-wielding riot police also used tear gas and
water cannons on migrants after a group tried to break through a gate on the
Hungary-Serbia border.
Since then, some
migrants have tried to enter Hungary
through sections of the border with Croatia,
while many others have opted to take a longer route through Croatia and Slovenia
toward Western Europe.
___
9:40 a.m.
Croatian police say
some 13,300 migrants have entered the country from Serbia since the first groups
started arriving more than two days ago.
Croatia on Friday closed all border crossings
with Serbia
except one in an effort to control the flow which has strained authorities.
Despite the move,
migrants and refugees fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and
Asia have been coming into Croatia
through the corn fields. Most of them want to move on toward Germany or the Scandinavian
countries.
The migrants have
turned to Croatia for a
corridor to Western Europe after Hungary used force to push them
away from its territory.
___
8:30 a.m.
Croatian
authorities say they have closed all border crossings with Serbia but one after straining to cope with
11,000 migrants and refugees who have entered the country after Hungary
closed off its border.
Serbian officials,
fearing that the closure would block thousands of migrants inside the country,
protested Zagreb's
move.
Aleksandar
Vulin, Serbia's
social affairs minister, said Serbia
will take Croatia
to international courts if the international border crossings remain closed.
Meanwhile, Slovenia has been returning migrants to Croatia
and has stopped all rail traffic between the two countries.
Croatian
authorities say the situation is worst in the eastern Croatian town of Beli Manastir, where
thousands of refugees have converged and caught local authorities unprepared.
___
8:15 a.m.
Activists say
conditions at a refugee registration center in the southeast German city of Passau became untenable
overnight.
A volunteer who has
helped migrants arriving in the Bavarian city says more than 2,000 people were
crammed into two large halls, with no medics or interpreters on site.
Dagmar Haase told
The Associated Press on Friday that she and other volunteers spent the night at
the site handing out food to migrants.
A spokesman for Germany's federal police, which run the site,
says some 4,000 migrants came across the border from Austria on Thursday.
Thomas Schweikl
says that while medics aren't on-site at all times, ambulances can be called
when necessary. He wasn't immediately able to comment on the number of refugees
at the site overnight.
