MigAid: Refugee situation becomes dire at Hungary’s southern borders
Wikimedia Commons/Sándor Gémes/SzomSzed -- Migrants in Hungary near the Serbian border
In the first 48 hours after the closure of the Croatian-Hungarian border, “the refugee crisis has become worse in all the neighboring countries involved”, and due to bad weather conditions tragic events could soon occur, volunteer group Migration Aid said yesterday in an announcement posted on their Facebook page.
Refugees climb through razor wires into Hungary near the Serbian border. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Sándor Gémes/SzomSzed)
“The Hungarian government decided to close the Croatian-Hungarian border without taking into consideration any humanitarian concerns, even though they only needed to make possible the transport of asylum-seekers in a certain line between the Croatian border and Hegyeshalom (the Austrian border crossing). This has not imposed any security threat on Hungary since we were only a transit station. Those who entered the country, left it within hours towards Austria,” the announcement says.
Migration Aid says Slovenia is not able to “adequately take over the transit role from Hungary since it does not have the experience nor sufficient transport capacities to do so”. The group says that as a result more and more, currently more than 6,000, refugees continue to arrive at the Croatian-Slovenian border and are forced to wait. “Due to the rapidly worsening circumstances and the bad supply conditions, a catastrophic situation might evolve and hungry crowds might start to wander through borders without control,” the group says.
According to Migration Aid, if Slovenian authorities fail to find a solution to this situation, refugees may approach Hungary again, through the natural border between Slovenia and Hungary, where no fence has been built, through the Dráva river between Croatia and Hungary and even possibly cutting through the fence on the Croatian border.
Hungary closed the entire length of its Croatian border on October 16 and its Serbian border on September 15. Currently refugees, who used to travel through Hungary towards Germany, crossing neighboring Austria, have been going through Slovenia. Earlier this week, Croatia asked Slovenia to accept 5,000 refugees on a daily basis, however, as Austria said it can only accept 1,500 refugees daily, Slovenia refused to take more than 1,500 a day, and refugees have been forced to gather at the Croatian-Slovenian border.
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