Croatia shuts down all but one border crossings

Croatia shuts down all but one border crossings

However, Serbian state broadcaster RTS is reporting there are problems in freight traffic, which is very slow. A several-kilometer line of trucks has formed, with drivers saying they had been waiting for 24 hours to enter Croatia.

Last night, the Croatian Interior Ministry announced that by 22:00 CET 11,003 migrants from the Middle East, Asia, and Africa had entered the country from Serbia, and that seven border crossings with Serbia had been closed, the Hina agency reported.

Late on Thursday, Croatian website Index quoted the same statement to report that "all border crossings with Serbia had been closed" and will remain so "until further notice."

Previously, Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said that his country would close the border "if almost 8,000 refugees again arrive in one day."

"We act as a country belonging to the EU, we are under obligation to register these people and nobody has the right to invite these people and tell them that someone had opened the border. If they had regular passports, papers and visas they could travel without problems. They cannot travel to other countries until the procedure that must be implemented has been implemented, and it is certain that other countries are not interested at all in such an influx," said Ostojic.

In Serbia, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Aleksandar Vulin warned Croatia not to close the border and international roads.

"We want to warn Croatia and any other country that closing international roads is out of the question and that we will protect our economic and other interests before international courts," Vulin told Tanjug.

In addition, Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said he "did not understand why Croatia has a problem to provide the necessary help and assistance to refugees."

"We cooperate with everyone, but you know these people pass 600 kilometers through our country and stay much longer than they stay in Croatia, that has had this problem for two days, and we've had it for four months," Vucic said in Washington, where ended his official visit to the U.S.

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said in Split yesterday that those refugees who come to Croatia certainly "will be directed to Slovenia and Hungary."

"Refugees will not stay in Croatia, they pass through our country. This is no danger for Croatia, and the number we will receive - we do not know. We will surely direct them to Slovenia and Hungary, and for two days now we have been showing that we are a civilized and organized state," Milanovic said on Thursday afternoon.