RefugeesCentral European states will no longer block refugees from entering on way to Austria

Hungary, Slovenia, and Croatia, the three central European countries most vocal in their opposition to allowing massive waves of refugees to enter the EU zone, have over the weekend suspended their policies of blocking refugees from using the three countries’ territories as a corridor for reaching Austria, Germany, and other countries in northern Europe.

The three countries will now allow refugees to enter but not stay, and help facilitate the transfer of tens of thousands of refugees toward Austria, reversing most recent attempts to block their passage.

The Austrian news agency APA said that over the weekend, about 15,000 refugees were allowed to enter Croatia, and then Hungary, on their way to the Austrian border, after Hungary, at least for now, appears to have given up on its effort to prevent refugees from crossing its border.

The Guardian reports that while thousands of refugees were allowed to enter Hungary from Croatia, the Budapest government continued to present a tough front, at least on the rhetorical level. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó promised tougher measures in the future. Szijjártó said: “We are a state 

that is more than 1,000 years old that throughout its history has had to defend not only itself, 

but Europe as well many times. That’s the way it’s going to be now.”

The calls in Europe for a cohesive and coordinated response to the refugee crisis are growing. Michael Diedring, the secretary general of the European Council for Refugees and Exiles, a union of eighty-seven European non-governmental organizations, told the Guardian: “EU states need to stop doing what they are currently doing, which is making decisions for their own benefit.”

He added: “There’s so much pressure at the moment that no single state is going to be able to survive [by acting on their own]. Even Germany.”