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Croatian minister says corridor towards EU won't be opened

Xinhua, September 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Croatia would not open a free corridor towards the European Union, as some feared, Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said on Wednesday evening.

He told a news conference that by now there was only a free corridor within Croatia, from Tovarnik, where refugees come to the country, to Jezevo where they were registered.

Croatian police could control the borders and did not use force towards refugees, he said, adding Croatia could receive up to 1,800 people at the same time, which was enough for now.

If the influx of refugees increase, Croatia would have to take further measures, he said.

A total of 1,191 migrants had entered Croatia on Wednesday by 9 p.m. local time. Among them 576, including 98 children aged up to 14, 108 women and 360 men, had been registered, according to Interior Ministry.

Ostojic had 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. Enditem