Spotlight: More European countries move to toughen border measures as refugees army rushes on

European countries are to take, or have taken, extra border control measures as an army of hundreds of thousands of refugees rushed toward them, via the Balkan region or other places.

Hungary officially closed its border with Serbia shortly after midnight on Tuesday as its new, strict law punishing illegal crossings with prison, went into effect.

According to the Hungarian national police, a record high number of 9,146 people crossed into Hungary on Monday, the final day under the more lenient law, 8,850 of whom were recorded at the Serbian border. This year 200,778 illegal immigrants have been recorded in Hungary until Monday midnight.

The Netherlands announced Monday afternoon that it would implement extra border controls as the number of refugees reaching the country has surged in past weeks.

The Dutch gendarmerie force is going to carry out extra border controls,including "more frequent checks in the border region and more people being picked out to be checked," announced Klaas Dijkhoff, Dutch state secretary for security and justice.

If the flood of refugees was moving toward the Netherlands, the country will consider additional measures to be taken, he told a European extraordinary meeting in Brussels.

Interior ministers from across the European Union (EU) gathered in Brussels Monday for an extraordinary meeting to discuss a quota plan to accommodate 160,000 asylum seekers.

Last week, about 3,100 refugees registered at the application center in the northern Dutch city of Ter Apel, according to the Dutch "Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers".

Belgium would "certainly consider" temporarily closing its borders to refugees, if refugees flock to Belgium, the country's secretary of state for asylum and migration, Theo Francken, said on Monday.

Francken said that if several EU countries closed their borders, it would create "a cascade effect," putting extra pressure on other states within the Schengen area of free movement.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann and Vice-Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner told a press conference in Vienna on Monday that Austria would send 2,200 troops immediately to its borders to help police control the ongoing asylum seeker crisis.

Faymann said the troop deployment will primarily oversee humanitarian aid, but also will help a border control. He stressed that the borders would not be closed, and the Schengen Agreement rules would still apply.

Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said on Monday that Poland is ready to start enhancing its border control in case of any threat, noting that Poland will not accept refugees quotas.

Poland held that refugees needed to be strictly divided from economic immigrants, and Poland does not have a policy of accepting refugee quotas, Kopacz said.

The Slovak Interior Ministry on Monday confirmed that Slovakia has introduced temporary checks at the Hungarian and Austrian borders, and Slovak police added an extra 220 officers at the borders to reinforce border checks.

Croatia has dispatched 6,000 policemen to its borders to monitor the movement of potential refugees toward the country, but not expecting an overflow of refugees to Croatia after Hungary tightened its regulations on illegal border crossing.

Croatia officials said that the country was ready to fulfill its commitment to take in 550 refugees from Syria and it could accommodate up to 3,000 refugees at police facilities.

Czech Foreign Police increased the number of police deployed along the border with Austria to 200 over refugees as they expect more migrants try to get to Germany from Austria via the Czech Republic after Germany announced the resumption of checks along the German-Austrian border.

Czech police have detained 51 refugees over the weekend. Last week, they detained 519 refugees.

The illegal migrants in the country have increased by more than 109 percent over the past eight months of this year. A total of 6,092 people were found in Czech Republic from January to August.

French President Francois Hollande Monday urged border controls in southern European countries to protect European borders amid the massive influx of refugees and "welcome (them) with dignity."

France and Germany are "extremely insistent" that border control centers be set up in Greece, Italy and Hungary, Hollande said one day after Germany reintroduced border controls on its southern border with Austria to curb thousands of asylum seekers knocking on its doors every day.

According to reports, around 13,000 arrived in the southern German city of Munich on Saturday, and another 3,000 on Sunday morning.

Hollande also stressed the necessity to reach common alternatives so that "Europe can enforce its borders" amid the resistance of some eastern European states to accept European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's plan of compulsory quotas to redistribute about 160,000 refugees in the European Union (EU).

On Sunday, Germany introduced temporary border controls at its border with Austria. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that Germany's border controls will take place mainly in Bavaria to "limit the refugees influx."

"The action will not solve all problems. We need more time and a degree of order on our borders," he said.

German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said on Monday that up to 1 million refugees may arrive in Germany in 2015 -- a figure bigger than the current official estimates of 800,000 asylum applications.

Large numbers of refugees have reached Germany in recent days, with more than 19,000 arriving in Munich, the main point of entry, over the weekend alone.

The vice-chancellor said it was a clear signal to European partners that Germany could not receive all the refugees alone.

A record number of Syrian, Afghan and other refugees are expected to cross into Hungary from Serbia on Monday, before Hungary's tough border restrictions go into effect on Sept. 15.

After a single day record of 5,809 refugees entering Hungary from Serbia on Sunday, putting the overall refugee figure for 2015 at 191,702, another 5,353 people arrived between midnight and noon local time Monday (2200 and 1000 GMT), according to the Hungarian National Police Force.

Meanwhile, on Monday afternoon, Austria again closed down the M1-A4 motorway connecting Vienna and Budapest.

Yet, not all European countries chose to close their borders to check the refugees army.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven on Monday ruled out closing the country's borders temporarily in order to limit refugee admissions, urging Europe to find a temporary and long-term solution for the refugee issue.

Last year Sweden received the highest number of asylum applications per capita of all EU countries, according to figures from Eurostat.

British Prime Minister has announced that Britain will accept 20,000 Syria refugees by 2020. However, comparing with the number of refugees expecting to be received by Germany, the action was criticized as too "slim".

In Spain, hundreds of people marched on Saturday in downtown Lisbon to welcome refugees, with similar events taking place in other European capitals.

The European Commission has drawn up an emergency plan to relocate 160,000 refugees around the continent, with migrants allocated according to a state's economic wealth and population.

At least 4 million people have escaped Syria since the conflict started, and around 2,500 migrants died or disappeared this year trying to reach Europe. Endi