Chaos in central Europe as tempers fray over migrant crisis

Relations between central European states are fraying along with their border and transport systems, as thousands of refugees seek a way through the region to western Europe.

Hungary accused Croatia of breaking European Union law as it transported hundreds of migrants to the Hungarian border, where Hungarian buses then took them on to Austria, in moves that were not agreed between the states involved.

Croatia shut down roads leading to its border with Serbia, and said it could not cope after 15,400 migrants arrived in three days, following Hungary's completion of a 175km fence to close its entire border with Serbia.

Slovenia in turn halted rail traffic from Croatia, after the first of what it expected to be thousands of migrants arrived by train on the border.

Thousands of asylum seekers continue to arrive every day in Greece from Turkey, and move north through Macedonia and Serbia before trying to find a route west through Hungary or Croatia and Slovenia.

Leaders and interior ministers of EU states will meet next week for what the United Nations refugee agency said yesterday "may be the last opportunity for a positive, united and coherent European response to this crisis. Time is running out".

Hard-line

As well as Hungary’s hard-line handling of asylum seekers, its rejection, along with other central European states, of a German-led plan for all EU members to take a quota of refugees riled Berlin and other capitals.

"Europe is a community of values based on human sympathy and solidarity. And those that don't share our values can't count on our money over time," said Germany's economy minister, Sigmar Gabriel.

“If it continues like this, then Europe is in danger, more than it was from the financial crisis or the Greece crisis.”

Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, called Germany’s quota plan “total nonsense”, as he tore into Croatia for its sharp criticism of Hungary’s tough stance on migration and subsequent failure to handle an influx of asylum seekers.

“At the moment, the Croatian government is transporting migrants, in contravention of the laws in force in the European Union, towards the Hungarian border instead of giving them a place to stay and looking after their needs,” he said.

“Rather than respecting the laws in place in the EU, they are encouraging the masses to break the law, because illegally crossing a border is breaking the law.”

Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, said yesterday the security fence on the border with Serbia would be extended to the border with Croatia.

Zagreb protested the move, but Mr Szijjarto said it was nonnegotiable and derided Croatia’s handling of the refugees’ arrival as “pathetic”.

“Hungarian-Croatian relations were at a low point even before the migration wave and so I don’t see any point in talking,” he said.

Stretched

Croatia’s prime minister Zoran Milanovic defended his government’s response, saying his country was moving as many asylum seekers as possible to reception centres but resources were stretched to the limit.

“We accept refugees, but our capacities are small,” he said. “We have nowhere to accommodate them any longer.

“We call on the EU . . . to realise that Croatia will not be a collection centre for refugees in Europe. We’ll give them water, food, care for the sick and let them move on.”

Serbia, meanwhile, railed against Hungary and Croatia for shutting down major crossborder motorways and other roads to deter the migrants.

“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,” said Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia’s minister in charge of migration.

As positions hardened across the region, Mr Orban said it was time for the EU to take a tougher line on Europe’s worst refugee crisis since the second World War.

“Many journalists, public speakers, politicians in Europe promote a suicidal liberalism that risks our values and puts our way of life in danger,” he told Hungarian radio.