 |
| Refugees Head To Croatia |
It is such a new route that the refugees have no idea what to expect.
All they do know is that Hungary is inhospitable and now violent and dangerous.
It has never been very welcoming but now it is shut and intends to defend its borders with as much force as its government deems necessary.
Fences, water cannon, gas, the military and the law are all being deployed with equal vigour.
On buses and in taxis they arrive at an informal junction on the old road to Croatia outside the town of Sid.
They shoulder their bags, grab a packed lunch from waiting NGOs and head off on a farm track through cornfields to yet another unofficial crossing point.
Some have done this through four or five nations.
By coming through Croatia and Slovenia to Austria, what should have been the last and arguably quickest leg of their journey has now been doubled.
I spoke to a number of the refugees who had made it to the Hungarian border.
They are all uniformly unhappy.
"It is terrible the way we have been treated," a young man from Damascus told me as he trudged with a group of friends towards the border.
"It is wrong, there are women and children in this heat, without food, without any respect being shown to them.
"Hungary is a big problem but we will keep going this way (through Croatia) and then eventually we will get there."
The Serbian authorities have shown remarkable flexibility in dealing with the tide of refugees but they still insist on keeping the official border crossings open, so they direct the refugees to what are basically illegal crossing points.
Croatian police with five mini-buses greet refugees as they arrive and escort them to the vans to ferry them across the border and to a hastily-erected reception area where the registration process begins.
Legally the refugees should ask for asylum or face being sent back to Serbia.
The government, which says it does have a plan, has yet to reveal what it is.
The sense is that they will suspend the usual protocols and allow the refugees to continue their journey north.
The problem is going to be dealing with the numbers.
The current system was creaking but just about held up.
If ten thousand arrived the turnip field crossing will descend into absolute chaos.
If that happens and the refugees feel they might as well carry on up north following the borders to Slovenia they will walk into mine fields laid in the Balkan wars of the 1990's.
That would be a disaster for everyone involved in this crisis but most importantly, the refugees themselves.
The key is to keep the refugees moving.
Source : http://news.sky.com/story/1553999/syrian-refugees-stories-of-fear-and-hope