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2nd LD Writethru: Taskforce set up to deal with refugees arriving in Croatia

Xinhua, September 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Croatian government announced it would set up a task force on Thursday for dealing with the refugee crisis after first wave of refugees hit the country on Wednesday.

A total of 892 refugees arrived in Croatia throughout the day till Wednesday evening, the Ministry of the Interior said.

Police said 373 refugees, including 225 men, 75 women and 73 children, had been received in the Tovarnik police station by afternoon.

Some 163 refugees took three buses to arrive at the Jezevo center, east of the Croatian capital of Zagreb. Most of them were women and children along with a few middle-aged and younger men.

A train that set out to pick up refugees in the eastern border town of Tovarnik arrived in the eastern city of Vinkovci on Wednesday afternoon.

Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said Croatia was ready to receive the first wave of refugees of around 1,500 people on Wednesday.

The refugees came to the Serbian border town of Sid early in the morning on buses from southern Serbia where it borders Macedonia.

Ever since Hungary closed its borders on Monday and Tuesday, the refugee wave going through Serbia will now most likely go through Croatia towards Western Europe.

Hungarian riot police on Wednesday fired tear gas and water cannons at protesting refugees trying to enter the country at the border with Serbia, according to media reports. Endite