Hungary Closes Serbian Border Crossing As Migrants Demand Entry

Wrapped in blankets, the migrants stood in freezing weather and whipping winds late on February 6 at the Kelebija border crossing, holding their possessions as they blocked traffic.

Children shouted “Open borders!” while some migrants held signs reading, “We are refugees, not criminals,”“We are running from war, not hunger,” and, simply, “Let us cross.”

Police said in a statement that the “border-crossing has been temporarily closed…as undisturbed crossing cannot be guaranteed due to a large group of migrants near the Serbian side.”

A border officer on the Serbian side told AFP that “about a hundred migrants” were peacefully waiting on a strip of land between Serbia and Hungary, demanding that Hungarian authorities let them in.

One man told the HVG.hu news site, “We are peacefully protesting. We want to be allowed to continue our journey toward Western Europe.”

Several thousand migrants fleeing war and poverty in their home countries are stranded in the Balkans as they seek entry into the more-prosperous nations of Western Europe.

Hungarian authorities have put up two rows of wire fences along the border to prevent them from entering.

Hungarian police report a sharp rise in attempts to cross the country’s southern borders since December.

An adviser to far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban — who has been vocal about his anti-migrant sentiments — said more than 3,400 attempts were made last month alone to cross the country’s southern borders, up from several hundred a month a year ago.

Officials say most of the migrants come from the war-torn countries of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

Hundreds of thousands were able to pass through the Balkans in 2015-16 when about 1 million people entered Europe.

A week ago, about 70 people attempted to get into Hungary at another Serbian border crossing in the night darkness but were driven back after security personnel fired warning shots in the air.

Serbia’s RTS news reported that Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin was traveling to the border to assess the situation

With reporting by AFP and AP