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Hungarian police fire tear gas to stop migrants
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HUNGARIAN police used tear gas and water cannon on hundreds of migrants who broke through a razor wire fence on the border with Serbia yesterday, while migrants prevented from moving through Hungary increasingly began taking a longer route into Western Europe through Croatia.
Frustrated migrants blocked on the Serbian side of the border threw plastic water bottles at rows of riot police and chanted demands the border be re-opened. Police responded with tear gas but there were no apparent injuries.
Some women pushed to the front of the crowd and held babies and children above their heads as they faced police in an obvious appeal for mercy, but no one made it through.
The incident took place at a small border crossing in Horgos, a short distance from the main border crossing into Hungary.
Hungarian authorities said yesterday that they had arrested 519 migrants who tried to cross the border since tough new laws went introduced on Tuesday that made it a crime to cross from Serbia anywhere other than at legal checkpoints. Authorities launched 46 criminal prosecutions and found an Iraqi man guilty, the first conviction based on the new laws.
The judge ordered the man expelled from Hungary and banned him from returning for one year. It was expected he would be returned to Serbia.
In the past few months, Hungary has become a main entry point into the European Union for migrants, many of them war refugees from Syria and Iraq, with more than 200,000 entering the country so far this year. Almost all entered from the southern border with Serbia and passed through Hungary quickly on their way to Germany or other wealthy western European nations.
Syrian President Bashar Assad yesterday blamed Europe for the crisis, saying it was a direct result of the West’s support for extremists in Syria over the past four years.
In an interview with Russian media, Assad accused Europe of supporting “terrorism” and providing “protection for terrorists, calling them moderates.”
“How can one be indignant about a drowned child and remain silent about the deaths of thousands of children, elderly people, women and men killed by terrorists in Syria?” Assad said.
Hungary’s foreign minister denied that closed borders and tough new laws signal callousness toward refugees, repeating the government’s claim that most of those entering Hungary are economic migrants.
“Based on our history, we are always in solidarity with the refugees,” Peter Szijjarto told reporters. “What we’re saying is that we cannot accept economic migrants because we cannot bear the burden of that.”
Most of the migrants who had hoped to cross into Hungary were still trapped along the border in Horgos. Many were confused about whether to keep waiting or to try to enter the EU through Croatia, a longer and less direct path into western Europe.
Melita Sunjic, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, said that early in the day the migrants were refusing to leave the border but changed their minds because of news and rumors going around that Croatia’s borders were open.
Most hope to reach Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has said it expects some 800,000 refugees to arrive in Germany this year alone.
Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic criticized Hungary’s decision to seal its border with Serbia for migrants and said Croatia will not do the same.
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