by Our Foreign Desk

CROATIAN Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said yesterday that refugees streaming into Croatia will be “moved on,” insisting his country cannot become a “migrant hotspot.”

He said Croatia’s borders would not be shut completely, but it had reached its limit.

Meanwhile, desperate refugees began bypassing now-closed border crossings, gaining entry into Croatia from Serbia through farmland.

Croatia has closed seven of the eight road crossings it shares with Serbia and officials said that roads leading to the border crossings had also been shut.

The crossing on the main road linking Belgrade and Zagreb at Bajakovo was the only one left open.

More than 14,000 people have entered Croatia since Wednesday, when Hungary completed a barbed-wire fence along its border with Serbia.

Hungary is also building a 25-mile fence along its border with Croatia.

Meanwhile, there are fears that refugees turned away at the Hungarian border may try to cross Croatian minefields, left over from the Balkans war.

Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic told those journeying through the Balkans: “Don’t come here anymore. Stay in refugee centres in Serbia and Macedonia.

“This is not the road to Europe. Buses can’t take you there. It’s a lie.”

Many of the refugees entering Croatia try to move on to Slovenia, but the authorities there have been sending them back and have stopped all rail traffic between the two countries.

On Thursday armed police in Croatia failed to contain 2,000 refugees gathered at Tovarnik railway station and were eventually forced to let hundreds through.

EU leaders are to meet on Wednesday to try to agree a unified response to the biggest movement of people Europe has seen since World War II.

Many of the refugees are Syrians and Iraqis fleeing war in their homeland.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that EU members reluctant to accept refugee quotas might have to be overruled with a majority vote at the summit.