By Krisztina Than BICSKE, Hungary (Reuters) - It's a long way from the beaches of Greece and Italy where shipwrecked migrants drag themselves ashore, but in the fields of Hungary a migration crisis is playing out that in its scale is no less dramatic than the scenes in the Mediterranean. In the first six months of this year, the number of migrants crossing into the European Union via Hungary's border with Serbia reached at least 61,000, overtaking even the number arriving in Italy. In recognition of the new front in Europe's migrant crisis, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban - a man once greeted as "dictator" by the European Commission chief - was allowed this week to opt out of an EU deal on taking in migrants.