Migrants Trapped in Serbia as Hungary Launches Border Crackdown

ROSZKE, Hungary — Crowds of frustrated migrants demonstrated on the Serbian side of the Hungarian border on Tuesday, chanting and displaying signs reading “Europe, Shame.”

 

Hungary shut its borders to migrants from war-torn Syria and beyond earlier in the day, telling those who wanted to cross that they would have to travel to a transit center and apply for asylum.

 

Police made the announcement through an Arabic translator just after midnight at Horgos II border crossing on the border with Serbia, where hours earlier a few migrants at a time had been allowed through a small gate. Many had walked a mile from a popular railroad crossing near the village of Roszke after it, too, was locked down by riot police.

 

Horgos II had been one of the only remaining crossing for migrants in a newly constructed border fence by which Hungary hopes to stem the flood of people. Police were under instructions to detain those trying to cross the border illegally, a criminal offense now punishable by prison or deportation.

 

“We will start a new era,” government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said shortly after midnight at the border. “We will stop the inflow of illegal migrants over our green borders.”

 

Read More: Migrants Trapped in Serbia as Hungary Launches Border Crackdown – NBC News