A wave of migrants seeking to enter the EU from the south-east have been shunted from one border to another as governments disagree over the crisis.
Croatia reversed its open-door policy after some 14,000 arrivals in two days. It is now sending hundreds of migrants north, angering Slovenia and Hungary.
Hungary, which is putting a fence on its border with Croatia, is reportedly sending new arrivals on to Austria.
Two EU crisis meetings will take place next week.
Many of the migrants are fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Thousands of migrants began entering Croatia from Serbia earlier this week, after Hungary closed its Serbian border and cut off the previous route north.
Croatia had initially said the migrants would be welcome, but on Friday it said it was overwhelmed and would not become a “migrant hotspot”.
It despatched at least 20 busloads of migrants and a train carrying 1,000 more towards Hungary, which reversed its stance from earlier in the week and let the new arrivals in.
Hungary is now taking the migrants to two registration centres, close to the border with Austria.
Austria said it had no co-ordination with Hungary to take the migrants. It reserved the right to deny entry to migrants who did not request asylum because they wanted to continue travelling north to Germany or elsewhere.
Separately, hundreds of migrants set off for Slovenia, to the west.
There are clearly no simple solutions, but criticism of the EU’s incoherent response to the refugee crisis is mounting, and Europe’s leaders know it.
Two EU meetings next week will be crucial, if that trend is to be reversed. But they’ll take place amid serious disagreements between EU member states.
Governments in central Europe are issuing strong criticism of each other – for failing to protect their borders, or for passing the buck. And several of them blame Germany for encouraging so many migrants to travel in the first place.
Germany, in turn, has warned again that any country showing a lack of solidarity on this issue cannot count – over time – on receiving money from the rest of the EU.
If this becomes not just a difference of opinion, but a clash of values, then Europe could be in real trouble.
Earlier, Hungary announced it was building a new fence along part of its border with Croatia.
It was Hungary’s completion of a razor-wire fence along its border with Serbia earlier this week that forced Serbia to move migrants towards Croatia.
Hungary’s new laws made attempts to cross its frontier illegal, and Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Friday accused Croatia of encouraging “masses of people to commit a criminal offence”.
Credit: BBC.com
