Hungary closes border with Croatia to stem migrant flow

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/16/europe/europe-mi

Accused of a heavy-handed response to the thousands of migrants and refugees crossing over its borders in recent months, Hungary closed its border with Croatia at midnight Friday, saying the only legal entry into the country would now be restricted to official border crossings.

No longer will waves of migrants be allowed to enter the country at any point along the border, as they have been in their quest to reach countries further in the European Union.

"The legal option, the legal possibility to come to Hungary and therefore to the European Union through the Schengen borders is open, but the green borders, the natural borders of the country, are sealed," spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said in announcing the closure.

Schengen borders are the official crossings under Europe's Schengen Agreement, which eliminated border controls among many European Union countries.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/16/europe/europe-migrant-crisis-hungary-border/

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"Close" is an overstatement: crossings will be limited to specific passport-controlled checkpoints (sort of like the US border).

Also, to forestall this: "migrant" and "refugee" have legal definitions here. Anyone transiting countries is a "migrant"; many of these migrants are refugees. (It's like how all squares are rectangles.)