- News>
- World
4-5,000 migrants try to board trains in Croatia border town: UNHCR
Between 4,000 and 5,000 migrants were attempting to board trains to the Croatian capital Zagreb Thursday from Tovarnik after crossing the border with Serbia, the UN refugee agency said.
Tovarnik: Between 4,000 and 5,000 migrants were attempting to board trains to the Croatian capital Zagreb Thursday from Tovarnik after crossing the border with Serbia, the UN refugee agency said.
"There are between 4,000 and 5,000 people here," Jan Kapic, a UNHCR spokesman, said from the small town in eastern Croatia. "Trains are coming but they can`t take all these people."
Up to 5,000 people arrived at the tiny train station overnight. The station was overwhelmed as people slept all along the side of the tracks, an AFP correspondent said.
Only a handful of Red Cross workers were on hand to give out food and provisions for the hundreds of babies and children there.
More help was on the way, said Kapic, including medical assistance and toilets, the first of which we`re being delivered around 9 am.
"For now we have enough but more will be needed and is on the way," he said.
"It is very hard to say if this will become the next transit camp. It is down to the Croatian government how it deals with this," said Kapic.
He also said that the migrants were now coming straight to the train station without going to the police station for registration, with police overwhelmed by the numbers.
The migrants have entered Croatia in the past 24 hours, after Hungary effectively sealed its border on Monday and Tuesday, shutting off a major entry point into the European Union.
It was unclear where the migrants would go from Croatia, which borders Slovenia, Austria and Hungary, all of which are unlike Croatia members of the passport-free Schengen zone.