Hungary closes Serbian border crossing to protesting asylum-seekers. Police in Hungary temporarily closed a border crossing with Serbia late on Thursday as several hundred asylum-seekers held a peaceful sit-in protest on the Serbian side demanding to be allowed to cross. The group, which included families with children from countries including Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq, had walked about 10 kilometres from the northern Serbian city of Subotica holding handwritten banners reading, “we are refugees, not criminals” and “we are running from war, not hunger”.
Serbian authorities later bussed the asylum-seekers back to several government-run reception centres and the border was re-opened this morning. Hungarian police have reported a sharp rise in attempts to cross the country’s southern border since December. Last week, about 70 people tried to cross in the night but were driven back by police firing warning shots.