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by Our Foreign Desk
HUNGARY declared a state of emergency yesterday and closed its southern border to refugees, declaring they must seek asylum where they are.
Queues of angry refugees formed on Serbia’s northern border after guards refused to let them cross.
Chaos enveloped the main border crossing near Roszke, Hungary, as the Hungarians opened a tiny office in a metal container to process people and crowds pressed to squeeze inside. About 20 managed to get in, but thousands remained outside.
Many pitched tents and settled in for an indefinite wait. Hungarian officials distributed food and water to refugees, which some refused in protest.
Those who managed to make it into Hungary the day before were boarding buses. One Hungarian police officer said they were being sent directly to Austria.
The night before, authorities used a railway freight carriage covered with with razor wire to block a key border crossing along a section of track that had been the main entry point for migrants.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government also enacted draconian new laws at midnight on Monday, stipulating harsh prison sentences for anyone entering the country illegally.
Security adviser Gyorgy Bakondi said that 155 people had been arrested under the new laws and would be charged.
Hungary has been erecting a 12-foot-high barbed-wire fence along the border with Serbia, patrolled by assault rifle-toting soldiers.
Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Budapest now also plans to extend the fence for “a reasonable distance” along its border with Romania.
Both Serbian and Romanian governments decried Hungary’s moves.
“Raising a fence between two EU member states who are strategic partners is not a fair gesture from a political point of view, according to the European spirit,” Romania’s Foreign Ministry said.
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic declared it was “unacceptable” that migrants were being sent back from Hungary while more and more were arriving from Macedonia and Greece.
“(Serbia) wants to be part of the solution, not collateral damage. There will have to be talks in the coming days with Brussels and other countries,” he said.
