UNHCR: Serbia currently has more than 10,000 refugees. Granic: Croatia must close the green border with Serbia.
(Large crowds at the border with Croatian and the cold has given rise to agitation among refugees AP Photo / Darko Vojinovic
Originally appeared at Politika.rs, translated by Igor exclusively for SouthFront
BELGRADE – The Serbian and Croatian border re-created traffic jams, because refugees are not allowed to cross to the Croatian side, reports Beta.
BBC reports that the at the border there are 50 buses held up and that among the frozen refugees is growing tension.
“For hours we are waiting for the buses. The weather is very cold. We have put on a few T-shirts. Its cild for the Children, there is no food”, Muhamad Samin from Afghanistan told BBC.
Reports that hundreds of migrants, including women and children have spent the night on the border between Croatian and Serbian in tents and buses.
“Were in the cold weather, it’s not good, we say to the authorities to take into account our suffering,” said Faruk al Khatib, a refugee from Syria.
Croatian television reported that about 2,000 people spent the night in the rain and cold on the Croatian-Serbian border, over on the Serbian side in Berkasovo.
The Croatian reception centre for refugees in Petrovac, near the border with Serbia, on Sunday was full, in it there were more than 5,000 people, but the number had later reduced, according to the latest data of the Croatian MUP last night there were about 4,300.
Croatian Interior Ministry, however, warned that it still awaits the arrival of refugees from Serbia.
Croatian Railways this morning said that in Tovarnik refugees boarded the 97th extraordinary train. Today they announced the arrival of a new train with 2,100 refugees in Cakovec which was unable to accept such a large number of people.
Beta
They spent the night in front of Bapska, from the morning they were being released into Croatia
PREŠEVO / BERKASOVO – Refugees from the Middle East this morning, crossed the Berkaovo-Bapska border, slowly they began began to move into Croatia, while in Presevo there is a continued influx of migrants from Macedonia to Serbia.
On the crossing form Berkasovo to Bapska, in front of which 3,000 men, women and children spent the night, the Croatian side was opened about 7 o’clock in the morning, said the representative of the UNHCR office in Belgrade Mirjana Milenkovski.
She also said that from midnight to 8 am on the crossing came more than 25 buses with refugees as well as many taxis, and that the UNHCR for all who arrive provided food packages, raincoat for rain …
Milenkovski added that yesterday for 24 hours through Macedonia and through the Miratovaci fields in Serbia entered some 10,000 refugees from Middle Eastern countries, “which was unprecedented.”
She also said that, and that among them were many young children and pregnant women, and that the police worked in three shifts, they only managed to register more than 5,600.
According to her, from 8am another 1,615 people registered, as in the previous period, pregnant women and families with young children have priority.
Milenkovski added that in Presevo they are expecting the arrival of a train from Gevgelija with about 550 people.
To the shelter centre in Presevo, refugees from Macedonia come over Miratovaci fields, located right next to Macedonian border, where they also formed a temporary camp with tents for shelter and first aid.
Many men, women and children from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan and other countries in recent days repeatedly arrive in Presevo, a town about seven kilometres away from the border, and the estimates are that this trend will continue.
Presevo is engaged in Red Cross activists, volunteers and members of various international organizations, as well as members of the police.
The centre in Presevo was opened on July 8, a refugee is provided and administrative support for obtaining temporary documents, as well as medical assistance, it a place for rest and food.
Refugees in Serbia are also directly crossing the Serbian-Bulgarian border, through the municipality of Dimitrovgrad, Negotin, Zajecar and Bosilegrad, but in much smaller numbers.
For refugees there are temporary centres open in Sid and Sombor where there are much fewer people, as well as a temporary camp in Kanjiža.
The ultimate goal of the refugees are mainly Germany and the Scandinavian countries, to which are trying to get through Hungary and Croatia.
Granic: Croatia must close the green border with Serbia
ZAGREB – Mate Granic, the president of Operation Team of the Croatian Presidency on the issues of the refugee crisis, said today that Croatia must close the green border with Serbia and call upon the army.
“There are two border crisis and Croatia has little choice if it doesn’t want to become a hot spot or a collection centre, which is to close green border of Serbia and Montenegro and to let refugees as much as we can. It is practically the only measure which we can make. Otherwise it will receive applause from Europe, but this will in a short time destabilize Croatia, “Granic said on the show A New Day N1 regional TV.
Pointing out that this is a global, regional and national crisis, Granic said that its “very dangerous for Serbia to begin to refer migrants to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro,” which have no mechanisms for the collection, which, he said, creates a new pressure on Croatian borders.
A story is about the thousand kilometre border, he said.
“This must be stopped through negotiations at the highest level, through the Ministries of Foreign Affairs,” said Granic, who believes the army should be sent to the boarders.
“Everyone has engaged the armed forces, Opatovac is practically made by the army with the effect of riot police and organizations, the Red Cross and UNHCR. Without the armed forces we could not endure this, “he said.
And last night, several thousand refugees from the Middle East spent the night between Sunday and Monday in the open in the cold and in the mud on the ground, “no man’s land” between the Serbian and Croatian, as Slovenia has slowed the influx of migrants to Western Europe.
Reuters, whose reporter is on the Serbian side of the border said that Croatian police reserves the refugees to enter the country because its full capacity. There are no nearby police to maintain order, and the cold and tired migrants shouting “Open the door, open the door!”.
UNHCR: Serbia currently has more than 10,000 refugees
BELGRADE – Serbia has currently more than 10,000 refugees who can not go further west because of the limitations of acceptance of refugees who are heading to west European countries, according to UNHCR now.
“We can only say that in Serbia there are more than 10,000 refugees. It is like a great river of people and if you stop its flow, somewhere there will be a flood, “said Reuters spokesman for UNHCR Melita Sunjic.
She was answering the phone with the Serbo-Croatian border, adding that UNHCR lacks food, blankets …
“We lack everything,” she stressed.
Decisions Slovenia and Austria to no longer receive refugees intensified tensions on the Croatian-Serbian border, waiting for fifty buses with more than a thousand people, reported today the Croatian index hr.
Croatian police yesterday blocked the passage of ten of us refugees who have tried to enter Croatia from Serbia to continue on the road to Western Europe, a new route through Slovenia, since Hungary closed a border crossing with the Croatian.
The refugees were encountered and the Croatian police in the corn fields on the border between Serbia and Croatian that were used for illegal entry into Croatia from mid-September.
Tanjug