Desperate refugees clash with riot police
HUNGARIAN riot police have fired tear gas and water cannon at crowds of refugees and migrants desperate to cross the border from Serbia, while others carved out a new route and headed for Croatia.
Tensions boiled over at the flashpoint Horgos-Roszke crossing, where hundreds of furious people tore down the wire meshing separating them from Hungarian territory, and police clashed for hours with migrants, some of whom threw stones, sticks and plastic bottles.
The unrest left 14 Hungarian police officers injured, authorities said.
Serbia lodged a formal protest with Hungary over the use of tear gas on its territory, and Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said police reinforcements were being sent to the border to help calm tensions.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was shocked by Budapest’s actions, as hundreds of people, many of them Syrians, remained stranded at Hungary’s newly fenced-off border.
Crowds who managed to overrun police lines and break through the fence in the Hungarian town of Roszke did not go deeper into the central European country’s territory.
They apparently wanted in world stead to show their frustration after Budapest sealed the border on Tuesday, an AFP correspondent said.
Gyorgy Bakondi, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief adviser, said the tough response came an hour after the migrants had issued an “ultimatum” to police, demanding to be let through.
“We will repair the fence, in fact we will put up a stronger fence,” he said.
Hungary also deployed three military vehicles mounted with guns some 100 to 200m from the border, an AFP reporter said.
The UN refugee agency has criticised Hungary’s hardline anti-migrant stance, saying it could violate the 1951 Refugee Convention.
“I was shocked to see how these refugees and migrants were treated. It’s not acceptable,” Mr Ban said.
Hungary on Tuesday closed the razor wire-topped border while threatening three-year jail sentences for anyone who crosses illegally.
Earlier on Wednesday, migrants desperate to find new ways to eastern Europe were granted access by Croatia.
By Wednesday evening, some 1300 men, women and children had entered the Balkan nation, the Interior Minister said.
Pressure is building for an EU summit to come up with solutions to the continent’s worst migration crisis since World War II, with the bloc bitterly split and free movement across borders, a pillar of the European project, in jeopardy.
Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said all migrants could pass through the EU state, allowing them to push on towards Slovenia, Austria and Hungary’s fenceless southwestern frontier. “We are ready to accept and direct those people,” he said.