TOVARNIK, Croatia // Across south-east Europe, nations closed borders, blocked bridges, shut down trains and built new razor-wire fences on Friday in a rush to block tens of thousands seeking safety in western Europe from crossing their territories.
The rapid-fire, often contradictory border decisions came as each nation tried to shift the burden of handling the huge influx on to their neighbours, leaving migrants even more angry, confused and desperate.
Croatia declared it was overwhelmed and began transporting migrants in convoys back to Hungary and closing border crossings with Serbia.
Slovenia shut down rail services to Croatia and was sending migrants back there.
With more than 14,000 migrants arriving in just two days, Croatian prime minister Zoran Milanovic declared that his nation of 4.2 million could no longer cope and asylum seekers could not stay.
“What else can we do?” said Mr Milanovic. “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.”
Nineteen Croatian buses on Friday carried migrants across the border to Beremend, Hungary, where they were put on Hungarian buses. Hungarian police said the people were being taken to registration points.
Huge numbers have surged into Croatia since Wednesday, after Hungary erected a barbed wire-fence on its border with Serbia and took other tough measures to stop migrants, including spraying crowds at the border with tear gas and water cannon and arresting hundreds trying to cross the border illegally.
Croatia represents a longer and more difficult route to the wealthier nations of the European Union, but those fleeing violence in their homelands, such as Syrians and Iraqis, had little choice.
Croatia closed seven of its eight border crossings with Serbia after chaotic scenes at the border on Thursday where dozens of migrants were trampled in the rush to get a seat on a bus or train.
Mr Milanovic, the Croatian leader, appealed on Friday to the European Union to step in and help.
“We have a heart, but we also have a brain,” he said.
Most migrants do not want to stay in Croatia. Just one woman with children has requested asylum in Croatia since the influx started, its foreign minister said.
The UN refugee agency warned on Friday of a “build-up” of migrants in Serbia as its neighbours tightened their borders.
“The crisis is growing and being pushed from one country to another,” said Adrian Edwards of the UNHCR. “You aren’t going to solve these problems by closing borders.”
The human misery was evident in Croatian towns like Beli Manastir, near the border with Hungary. Migrants slept on streets, on train tracks and at a petrol station. People scrambled to board buses without knowing where they were going.
Hundreds of others were stranded on Friday on a large Danube River bridge in the Serbian town of Bezdan after Croatian authorities closed all but one border crossing. A large lorry lifted barriers on to the bridge.
The group, which included many women and children, stood in a no-man’s-land in the middle of the tall bridge in the scorching heat with little water or food.
“We came here last night when they said ‘wait here for a while’ and then they brought in police cars to block the bridge,” said Ahmed Ali from the embattled Damascus neighbourhood of Yarmouk, who held a baby girl in his arms.
He said part of his family managed to cross the bridge and enter Croatia, while the rest were stranded on the bridge.
“We escaped from the war in Syria and we will die here now and this is the responsibility of Europe,” he said.
Despite the border closures, many slipped into Croatia through cornfields. Women carrying children and people in wheelchairs were among the thousands who rushed in the hopes of finding refuge.
Some from Croatia had already made their way north to Slovenia. About 100 people were held on Friday at a makeshift processing centre in the border town of Berizce.
But Slovenia was returning others to Croatia and had stopped all rail traffic between the two countries. Slovenian police intercepted dozens of migrants who tried to cross through the forests overnight from Croatia.
Hungary, meanwhile, started to build another razor-wire fence overnight, this one along a stretch of its border with Croatia to keep migrants from entering the country there, a quicker route to western Europe than through Slovenia.
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban said the first phase of the 41-kilometre barrier on the Croatian border was to have been completed by last night, with coils of razor wire laid down before the fence went up. In addition, he said 1,800 soldiers and 800 police were to be sent to the border with Croatia over the next few days to keep out migrants.
Mr Orban lashed out at those in the West who have criticised his handling of the migrant crisis.
“The critical voices from there are not calming down,” Mr Orban said, adding that European politics and media were governed by a “suicidal liberalism” that “puts our way of life at risk”.
Humanitarian groups appealed for a more unified response. A spokesman for the UN refugee agency, Babar Baloch, said countries could not cope individually.
“What’s missing is collective EU action,” he said. “Countries have been trying to deal with it on their own and then at some stage, they say they can’t. So they need to do it together.”
* Associated Press