Croatia plans to close border with Serbia if migrant wave persists

A Croatian policeman helps a boy as migrants board a bus in Tovarnik, Croatia, Sept 17, 2015. REUTERS

ZAGREB (REUTERS) - Croatia will close its border with Serbia if another 8,000 migrants enter the newest European Union member in one day, Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said on Thursday.

"Croatia will close its border with Serbia if we witness again 8,000 migrants entering the country in one day," he said.

He said there was no need for migrants to continue arriving to seek protection as Croatia had no capacity to receive them.

"Croatia is not interested to be a country where the migrants will seek what they can get in other countries where they are now," he told reporters.

Some 9,000 migrants entered Croatia since early Wednesday following the closure of Hungary's border with Serbia.

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