EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SERBIA-CROATIA BORDER Thousands of refugees stranded at Serbia-Croatia border crossing

Record ID: 136122

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SERBIA-CROATIA BORDER Thousands of refugees stranded at Serbia-Croatia border crossing
  • Date: 20th October 2015
  • Summary: BORDER STRIP BETWEEN SERBIA AND CROATIA, NEAR BERKASOVO, SERBIA (OCTOBER 20, 2015) (REUTERS) MIGRANTS WALKING PAST AID CENTRES MIGRANTS WALKING TOWARDS CROATIAN BORDER MIGRANTS AROUND BONFIRE MAN AND WOMAN HOLDING CHILDREN/SITTING NEAR BONFIRE TWO CHILDREN LOOKING TOWARDS CAMERA MAN'S HAND HOLDING CHILDREN HANDS MIGRANTS WALKING (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNHCR CO-ORDINATOR, NI
  • Embargoed: 4th November 2015 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Serbia
  • Country: Serbia
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACO74QNUPVN2J6OVEWBL1MBMP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Around 2500 people at the Berkasovo-Bapska border crossing between Serbia and Croatia waited on Tuesday (October 20) in cole and muddy to cross over into Croatia.
    Many slept the night under open skies or in tents and tarpaulins provided by aid agencies. Others wrapped in blankets tried to stay warm from small campfires by burning plastic and rags of clothing.
    Serbian police estimated between 2000 and 3000 people were waiting at the border crossing. Exact numbers were difficult to establish as people were still arriving or in further locations next to the border.
    UNHCR co-ordinator Niklas Stoerup Agerup, who was helping the migrants massed at the border, described the situation as difficult, with temperatures dropping at night.
    "A lot of them have waited all through the night and luckily it hasn't rained but it was still a cold, and windy night. We still have more people coming in," Agerup said.
    He said the area had become a 'bottleneck' of migrants after border crossings between countries had closed.
    "But of course with what happened, Hungary closing the border with Croatia, and then some how do you say, constraints about numbers, has led to this place becoming more of a bottleneck as we call it. So, meaning that people are stranded here, because it is limited number of people who are allowed in, and that is something new and it's to do with the closure of borders elsewhere," he said.
    One Serbian policeman said that the border was opened at around 3 AM and about 100 to 150 people were crossing every hour.
    A Syrian refugee from Aleppo, Ward Al Raid, who masked his face to keep warm, said he expected more from the United Nations.
    "I expect from UN, to let, to help people, there is not enough blankets for all people, childrens feeling cold, womens feeling cold, all people feeling cold," Al Raid, said.
    Waiting for hours in the cold, migrants were seen pushing each other in a crowd as frustration rose.
    One migrant from Damascus, Sinan Hamud, looked on at the tussle in the crowd and laughed.
    "But you know it's a big problem here, about six thousand people, it's not your fault, it's our fault, we are bad people," he said.
    At least three dozen Croatian police? in helmets secured the border area keeping the crowds of migrants from crossing over. One bus and four police vans were waiting at the Croatian side to pick up refugees.
    The European Union has agreed a plan, resisted by Hungary and several other ex-Communist members of the bloc, to share out 120,000 refugees among its members, a small proportion of the 700,000 migrants the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) projects will reach Europe's borders from the Middle East, Africa and Asia this year.
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