EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SERBIA-HUNGARY BORDER MORNING Hundreds of migrants queue at closed Serbia-Hungary border crossing
Record ID:
141128
EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SERBIA-HUNGARY BORDER MORNING Hundreds of migrants queue at closed Serbia-Hungary border crossing
- Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SERBIA-HUNGARY BORDER MORNING Hundreds of migrants queue at closed Serbia-Hungary border crossing
- Date: 15th September 2015
- Summary: HORGOS, SERBIA (SEPTEMBER 15, 2015) (REUTERS) HELICOPTER CIRCLING ABOVE BORDER POLICE STANDING BEHIND FENCE ON HUNGARIAN SIDE OF THE BORDER AT ROSZKE MIGRANTS NEAR FENCE VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS WITH HANDS ON FENCE VARIOUS OF WOMAN HOLDING YOUNG CHILD OUTSIDE TENT HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE STANDING BY TENTS CHILD SITTING EATING BREAD PEOPLE GATHERED BY FENCES (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNITED NATIONS REFUGEE AGENCY (UNHCR) FIELD PROTECTION OFFICER, NIKKLAS STORUP-AGERUP, SAYING: "The border has been closed with Hungary, here at the Horgos 2, where we are standing and that happened around midnight last night. So now we have around 700-800 people who are queuing up, many of them have put up their tents and they are waiting in front of the border and hoping to be able to cross." WOMAN HOLDING CHILD VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WALKING NEAR BORDER ROSZKE, HUNGARY (SEPTEMBER 15, 2015) (REUTERS) ROSZKE/HORGOS BORDER FILMED FROM HUNGARIAN SIDE POLICE AT GATES/MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES BEHIND HELICOPTER FLYING OVERHEAD POLICE AT GATES/MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES BEHIND POLICE VEHICLES LEAVING
- Embargoed: 30th September 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Hungary
- Country: Hungary
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAE9YC2MTJF0VDL3AL3PC5J1GLB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: More than 700 people gathered at the Horgos 2 land border crossing between Hungary and Serbia on Tuesday (September 15), after it was closed overnight as part of a Hungarian crackdown on migrants entering the European Union.
Thousands of migrants and refugees have been using the crossing to enter the EU by land from Serbia over the past few weeks, in the continent's worst refugee crisis in two decades.
Aid workers brought tents, food and water for the migrants, many of them Syrian refugees, denied entry overnight under a strict new border regime that EU member Hungary warned may see many asylum seekers rejected and expelled back to Serbia.
United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) Field Protection officer Nikklas Storup-Agerup was at the border.
"The border has been closed with Hungary, here at the Horgos 2, where we are standing and that happened around midnight last night. So now we have around 700-800 people who are queuing up, many of them have put up their tents and they are waiting in front of the border and hoping to be able to cross," he said on Tuesday morning.
Reuters reporters saw dozens of people pass through gaps in an unfinished fence that Hungary is building the length of the EU's external border with Serbia, squirrelling under coils of razor wire.
Some made it, while others were stopped before they could try and directed to the official border crossing by police and soldiers. Some, tired and cold, sat down in fields short of the 3.5-metre high metal fence.
A major flashpoint in Europe's worst refugee crisis since the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, Hungary has vowed to clamp down on the flow through the Balkan peninsula to the richer countries of northern and western Europe.
Police have recorded over 190,000 entering Hungary this year, including a record for one day of more than 9,000 on Monday (September 14).
Their window of opportunity is rapidly shrinking as Hungary puts the finishing touches to the fence the length of its 175-km (108 mile) southern border. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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