Refugees cover their faces from tear gas during clashes with Hungarian riot police at the Hungarian border with Serbia near the town of Horgos. (AFP Photo)
In one of the worst bursts of violence that this tense refugee summer has seen, Hungarian riot police responded on Wednesday to rocks, taunts and small fires set by agitated migrants at the border crossing here with water cannons, head-cracking batons and both tear gas and pepper spray.
Although the word was quickly spreading along the migrant trail that heading toward Croatia from Serbia was a better bet than trying to push through the heavily guarded border into Hungary, hundreds of straggling refugees continued to turn up at the crossing here in hopes that Hungary would change its mind and let them through.
Tension had been building through the afternoon. About 2,500 migrants had set up camp along the narrow, two-lane road leading to the small crossing here - nothing more than a cluster of battered buildings and two lines of fence.
On the Serbian side of the green fence that marked the border zone was a squalid encampment of tents, swirling trash, wailing children and a few Serbian police officers, watching the chaos unfold. On the Hungarian side, beyond a second fence, were hundreds of police officers, some with protective shields and full riot gear, others in crisp uniforms and red caps, standing in formation and ignoring the crowds peeking at them.
By twilight, the crowd had calmed again and the riot police remained in place at the border. People began preparing dinner in their windblown tents, but a growing stream of people walked along the road back into Serbia saying they would give Croatia a chance.
The government said that 14 police officers had been injured, but the only injured people in evidence were people who had been trampled, hit with batons or flattened by the gas. Several people gasped for air on the ground next to ambulances.
"These people already have covered thousands of kilometers to get to that point," said Balazs Lehel, program coordinator in the Budapest office of the International Organization for Migration.
"They're so tired and frustrated that they don't have the strength to get up again and find another route.
© 2015, The New York Times News Service