When some of these people made their way to Croatia, Zagreb allowed them in, but has subsequently said it can not register them all and has closed seven of eight border crossings.

After almost 10,000 refugees and migrants entered Croatia in the past two days, the country has placed its army on alert to deploy on the country’s border with Serbia.

Hungary on Tuesday sealed its southern frontier, the EU’s external border, with tough new laws under which asylum seekers have been rejected in quick succession and those that try to illegally cross the fence have been arrested, tried and expelled.

Croatia’s Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said the country has exhausted all its resources dealing with the huge influx of migrants in recent days.

Meanwhile, Slovenia said it stopped a group of refugees on a train at the border and would return them to Zagreb.

Others trying to enter Slovenia by train from Croatia were intercepted by border police, with officials stopping all rail traffic on the main line between the countries.

Several countries, including Germany and France, have agreed to take in hundreds of thousands of refugees, though Germany had closed its borders Sunday in order to process the massive number of refugees and migrants already inside the country.

Reporting from the Croatia-Serbia border, Lauren Frayer spoke to Jamal al-Shahoud, a refugee from Syria, who told her, “Here no food, no water”.

Around 9,000 migrants poured in from Serbia in a single day after Wednesday’s clashes between migrants and refugees and Hungarian riot police. Nineteen Croatian buses carried migrants across the border Friday to Beremend, Hungary, where they were put on Hungarian buses to go to registration points. Croatia represents a longer and more arduous route into Europe, but those fleeing violence in their homelands have little choice now. Baton-wielding police responded with tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons, and migrants threw rocks and other objects at police.

Many hundreds have pushed through border guard lines and are now continuing their way through Croatia on a journey to western Europe.

According to the BBC, Croatia has been overwhelmed by the new arrivals. “They have the same obligations as Croatia to keep people under worldwide protection in their reception camps”.

Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto lashed out against the strong criticism the country has faced internationally – including comments from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who called Hungary’s response unacceptable.