Migrants Stay Just Hours in Serbian Transit Center Before Moving to EU

The European Union is struggling to cope with an unprecedented influx of migrants who are fleeing conflict-torn and poverty-stricken countries in the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as some South Asian nations.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Migrants spend only a few hours in the transit center in the Serbian town near the Hungarian border, Kanjiza, before continuing on to the wealthy European states, the manager of the migrant center at the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration, Robert Lesmajster, told Sputnik Serbia on Monday.

"No registration is required at the transit center, anyone can stay here as long as they want, to sleep, take a shower, get something to eat. The families with children stay here much longer than those who travel alone. Those [traveling alone] are here only for a few hours. And I admire that inner strength and readiness to move on," Lesmajster said.

The decision to build a temporary transit center in Kanjiza was made due to protests by local residents, as tens of thousands of migrants huddled in the very city center, without any shelter from the elements.

According to Lesmajster, the tension is still palpable in Kanjiza.

On Saturday, Hungary completed construction of a 175-kilometer (108-mile) fence on the country’s southern border with Serbia. The Hungarian authorities said that the erected fence would be accompanied by a more permanent 13-foot wall, which is currently under construction.

On Thursday, Hungary recorded a new daily record for the number of migrants arriving from Serbia with some 3,241 refugees, including 698 children, having crossed the Hungarian-Serbian border.