Hungary's prime minister says if the European Union is incapable of stopping the waves of people arriving at its "eastern gate" of Greece, they must be stopped at its "western gate" of Hungary and Slovenia. Speaking Thursday at a meeting of the European People's Party in Madrid, Prime Minister Viktor Orban described those escaping poverty and war in the Middle East, Asia and Africa as a "people's migration made up of economic immigrants, refugees and armed foreigners." The tiny European nation of 2 million says it has been overwhelmed by the migrant influx and has called on the army to help police with border duties. Officials from Hungary and Serbia have reopened a border checkpoint where Hungarian police had earlier used tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons against hundreds of refugees trying to enter the country. Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic has asked richer EU nations to help with the massive migrant influx, saying it was impossible for the transit countries to bear most of the burden. Police official Alenka Drenike said Thursday that the injured migrant suffered minor injuries in the clash on the Rigonci border area with Croatia. A Cyprus foreign ministry official says 114 people aboard two boats that came ashore at a British air base on the east Mediterranean island on Wednesday are the responsibility of British authorities. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to discuss the matter, said a 2003 agreement Cyprus signed with the British Bases does not obligate Cyprus to take accept asylum seekers, whether or not their applications are accepted. Croatia's interior minister says neighboring Slovenia should speed up migrant acceptance so the newcomers can swiftly move on toward western Europe. The Czech Republic's president and the Interior Minister have rejected the criticism by the U.N. human rights chief of their country's policy of detaining migrants and refugees and their treatment. Zeman previously said that asylum-seekers might bring terrorism and infectious diseases, and called for the deployment of the armed forces to protect the country's borders against them. The Czech Republic's ombudsman condemned conditions in the detention facility last week, saying they violate the U.N.'s Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Convention on Human Rights. An official of Slovenia's ruling party official says declaring a state of emergency over the migrant crisis remains a possibility although the government hopes to avoid that by granting some police powers to the army. Zeid Raad al-Hussein says credible reports indicate "the violations of the human rights of migrants are neither isolated nor coincidental, but systematic" in the country. The move comes after Austrian police removed barriers Thursday at the migrant collection point at the Spielfeld crossing, saying they needed to relieve growing pressure due to overcrowding that could lead to violence. A U.N. refugee agency field officer says a large number of families with small children have been among the thousands of migrants crossing along a muddy border passage between Serbia and Croatia.
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