BATINA, Croatia — Croatian leaders put the army on alert after chaos erupted Thursday on the border with Serbia, where thousands of asylum-seekers poured into the country, some trampling each other in a rush to get on the few available buses and trains. Dozens were injured in the mayhem.
The masses descended on Croatia after Hungary erected a barbed-wire fence and took other tough measures to stop them from using it as a gateway into Western Europe.
As Hungarian officials hailed their success in putting a halt to the influx and moved ahead with plans to build more border fences, leaders in Croatia pleaded that their country was at full capacity and unable to cope with waves of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said he had a message for migrants: Don’t try to go to Western Europe through his country.
“Don’t come here anymore. Stay in refugee centers in Serbia and Macedonia and Greece,” Ostojic told reporters. “This is not the road to Europe. Buses can’t take you there. It’s a lie.”
Hungary sealed off its border with Serbia this week with a razor-wire fence and began arresting people who tried to cross. Police used tear gas, batons and water cannons on those who tried to push open a border gate Wednesday.
Croatia represents a longer and more difficult route into Europe, but those fleeing violence in their homelands had little choice. By late Thursday a total of 9,200 people had entered the country in just 48 hours, police said, and other groups were trying to cross into neighboring Slovenia and Hungary.
Slovenia, as did Hungary, appeared unwilling to take in the inflow, with Slovenian police saying those arriving from Croatia would simply be sent back there, according to the country’s state news agency.
Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic called on the military to be on higher alert and to act if needed to protect the border from the migrants. Ostojic, the interior minister, meanwhile, suggested Croatia might close its borders if faced with thousands more newcomers.
After bus trips through Serbia, many migrants crossed fields on foot to enter Croatia, where dozens of police at first directed them to trains and buses heading to refugee centers. Authorities warned them to avoid walking in areas along the Serbian border, where there are still mines from Balkan wars.
Soon matters got out of control.
Hundreds of angry asylum seekers pushed through police lines in the eastern Croatian town of Tovarnik after waiting for hours in the hot sun, demanding to be allowed to move on toward Western Europe. An Associated Press photographer saw one man collapse on the ground and dozens injured.
More than 2,000 men, women and children had been stuck at the local train station for hours. When buses finally arrived, groups charged toward them, overwhelming Croatian police. The situation calmed, but some migrants moved off on foot, with police unable to stop them.
In Croatia’s north, police in Batina struggled to cope as hundreds of other asylum seekers came over a Danube River bridge after being bused there by Serbian authorities. Some families were separated as dozens of policemen tried to establish order.
As an EU member state, Croatia is required to register the asylum seekers. But almost all are trying to reach Germany or elsewhere in Western Europe and want to move through quickly without a paper trail.
Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said his country could do little to prevent the migrants from moving on. “Our resources are limited,” he said. “I will not, and cannot, stop those people, and they will pass through Croatia.”
Some opted for a detour, trying to cross from Croatia into Hungary along a stretch of open border that has no fence. That move did not prove very successful: Dozens were detained near the Hungarian village of Illocska, across from the Croatian town of Beli Manastir.
By nightfall hundreds were approaching the border with Slovenia, one of several countries on the migration route calling for urgent action by the European Union to manage the crisis.
While many refugees decided to switch routes and try their luck through Croatia, others found themselves stranded in Serbia.
“We’ve run out of money and we only know the way through Hungary,” said Mohamed Jabar, from the Iraqi town of Diyala.
