Migrant Crisis; Hungary To Seal Border With Croatia

Hungary will seal off its border with Croatia from midnight on Friday to stem the flow of thousands of migrants arriving daily, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced after a meeting of the national security cabinet. 

"The National Security Cabinet has decided that from tomorrow Saturday... Hungary should be able to fulfill its Schengen commitments on the Hungarian-Croatian border, in other words we will close the green border from midnight," Szijjarto said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing government has pledged to protect Hungarian borders and the European Union’s external frontiers from the influx of hundreds of thousands of migrants who, fleeing war or poverty, have come via the Balkans, many with the hopes of reaching Germany.

Hungary has built a steel fence to cut off the migrants’ route over its southern border with Croatia ahead of its closure on Friday. Just last month, the country constructed a similar barrier along its frontier with Serbia.
Hungarian Justice Minister Lazlo Trocsanyi defended his country’s recent clampdown on migrants in an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24.
“We built a wall. And anyone who goes around the wall, who destroys the wall, that signifies that sanctions are possible,” he said.
Once Hungary’s border with Croatia is sealed, migrants will be forced to turn towards neighbouring Slovenia if they want to enter Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone, or could be left stranded in Croatia, where the weather is getting colder and authorities are already struggling with the mass influx.