A small gap in coils of newly laid razor wire is all that remains of the Zakany-Botovo border crossing between Hungary and fellow European Union member Croatia, as Budapest prepares to close off another route for migrants flocking to Europe.
Heavy machinery is clearing trees and a three-metre-high fence is taking shape along the line of the razor wire. The border, still traversed by thousands of migrants daily en route to Austria and Germany, could be sealed in a matter of minutes, potentially diverting the migrants into tiny Slovenia or stranding them in Croatia, where authorities are struggling with the scale of the influx.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has already thrown up a fence to shut down the migrant route over Hungary’s southern border with Serbia, said last week the closure was imminent, and speculation is rife that it might follow his return from the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Border crossings have been fitted with gates of steel and concrete.
Border crossing fitted with gates of steel and concrete
At the Zakany train station, military armoured personnel carriers guard a train car, one side of which has been covered in razor wire in what appears to be a replica of the wagon used to close the main migrant route from Serbia. The closure of that stretch of Hungary’s border saw violent clashes between police firing tear gas and water cannon and young, male migrants lobbing stones and smashed concrete.
The EU is moving ahead with a plan, opposed by Hungary and several other eastern, ex-Communist members of the bloc, to distribute 120,000 refugees, many of them Syrians, between its members. But that is just a portion of this year’s influx of migrants, which the UN refugee agency said yesterday may reach 700,000 and possibly more in 2016, in the greatest movement of people in Europe since World War II.
Mr Orban, one of Europe’s most vociferous opponents of immigration, says he need not wait for the fence to be completed before he orders the crossings closed. Razor wire would suffice.
“We need not wait for the completion of the second layer to order the closure of the green border,” he said, adding, “We cannot wait for an as-yet-unborn common European policy. Once everyone understands what the Hungarian intention is and they can prepare that the Serbian-Hungarian border status quo will extend to the Croatian-Hungarian border, we will put those rules in effect to enforce EU laws on border crossing.”
The razor wire runs the length of Hungary’s border with Croatia, including along sections that follow the Drava river, a fast-flowing artery that some migrants may be tempted to swim.Unlike Hungary, Croatia is not a member of Europe’s Schengen zone of passport-free travel.
Relations between the two countries have soured considerably since the migrants began flowing into Croatia after Hungary shut down their route from Serbia, reflecting the discord and recrimination running through the European Union.