The Current

Croatia overwhelmed by number of refugees, says foreign minister

The Croatian government says it wants to help refugees but it is overwhelmed by the sheer number of people in their small country. More than 40,000 people have entered Croatia since last week, many of them Syrian refugees. We speak to the foreign minister of Croatia.
Croatia's Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic. The Croatian government says it wants to help refugees but it is struggling and overwhelmed by tens of thousands of refugees entering their small country. (Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images)
We are in the process of trying to negotiate with Serbia not to bus [refugees] all to the Croatian border, but to divide them between Croatian and Hungarian crossings, so that both Hungary and Croatia can at least to some extent, deal with the numbers that care coming.-  Vesna Pusić. foreign minister and first deputy prime minister of Croatia

Monday, we brought you a story about the European Union's inability to handle the refugee crisis....which was particularly on display as Hungary closed its southern border with Serbia last week.

Migrants walk the last few kilometres from Serbia to Croatia as more migrants continue to arrive by bus on September 21, 2015 in Sid, Serbia. (David Ramos/Getty Images)

This meant that thousands of refugees turned westward and began pouring into Croatia as they continued their journey toward Germany and other European countries.

To discuss Croatia's response to the crisis, we were joined by Vesna Pusić. She is the foreign minister and first deputy prime minister of Croatia and we reached her in New York.
 

This segment was produced by The Current's Julian Uzielli.