Clashes at Balkan borders as refugees spend night in cold

(Vatican Radio)  Scuffles have broken out with security forces at border crossings near Croatia and Slovenia as thousands of refugees spent another night in the cold while trying to move towards Western Europe. The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says the current chaos comes after Hungary closed its border with Croatia.  

Listen to Stefan Bos' report:

Exhausted refugees have been fighting to board a bus. They are stuck in fields in Serbia after being pushed back by Croatian border police. The bus driver is charging 10 euro or more per passenger to bring them back to a nearby camp. That's difficult for families, who already spent most if not all their money to come here.

Volunteer Ines Tanovic is desperate. "They just brought them here and said: 'go'. And they said: 'This is not a crossing so you have to go back'," she said. "We have 900 people here at the moment."

Chaotic scenes have also been seen in Croatia itself, where thousands spent the night in the cold in a refugee camp. And further away near the border with Slovenia tensions emerged as police backed by army personnel only allow 2,500 people a day to enter the tiny alpine nation.

Hungary troubles

The chaos has been linked to Hungary, which closed it border with Croatia to refugees over the weekend. It completed a huge fence at the Hungarian-Croatian frontier, after building a similar structure along its border with Serbia.

It also added border controls with Slovenia though both nations are supposed to be part of the European Union's passport free Schengen zone.

Yet, refugee Wahid Shamdi from the Syria doesn't give up hope. "Hungary, Slovenia whatever, we have to go, we have to go. We went, we came from Syria, to here, we stop one day, two day, three days whatever, we want to go, we want to go. We have a point, we have to go there. I have my family there," he added. 

The United Nations has strongly condemned Hungary for what it says is adding to the misery of thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Turkey talks

Yet the government of Hungary's rightwing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says it is defending Europe against an "uncontrolled"  wave of migrants.

Germany chancellor Angela Merkel has been holding talks over the weekend in Turkey with President Tayyip Erdogan on how to halt the massive influx of refugees towards Western Europe.

Erdogan has demanded European Union membership and billions of dollars in aid.

But critics say that these measures will come too late to end Europe's biggest refugee crisis since World War Two.