Croatia Vows to Erect Fence on Serbia Border as 'Last Resort' Move

Croatia may erect a fence on its border with Serbia to prevent undocumented migrants from entering amid the global refugee crisis, but hopes it will not have to resort to such measures, Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Croatian media reported that the country’s authorities were ready to start construction of such a fence, and that the work would take around two weeks.

"It is possible to build a fence against migrants, but this is not what we want, and this is not a solution to the issue. If Germany were to close its borders… what could we do then? Leave hundreds of thousands of refugees in Serbia and wait for the situation to explode," Pusic told N1 television channel.

Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said earlier that the erection of a fence between the countries would be the last possible option, and that he was against such measures.

Over 710,000 migrants arrived in the European Union within the first nine months of 2015, according to the EU border agency Frontex, with Croatia and Serbia just two of the many transit points for refugees en route to the European bloc.

The refugees are leaving conflict-torn countries in Africa and the Middle East, including Syria, in search of a better life in wealthy EU countries, such as Germany and Austria.

In response to the massive wave of migrants using the country as a transit point into wealthier European states, the Hungarian government has built fences along the country’s Croatian, Romanian and Slovenian borders.