Croatia closes its borders too

People walk through a field to get to Serbia's border with Croatia near the town of Sid yesterday. Photo / AP

Refugees rejected by force at the Hungarian border are now finding no luck at the Croatian border

Croatia joined the Eastern blockade of Western Europe-bound refugees, when it closed seven of its eight border crossings with Serbia "until further notice".

The move was announced by the country's Interior Ministry after 11,000 migrants crossed the border within 48 hours.

In Slovenia, police stopped a train carrying 150 refugees from arriving from Croatia. Border police said the migrants did not have the correct papers and would be sent back to Zagreb, the Croatian capital.

Earlier in the day Hungary declared success for its controversial efforts to seal its borders to migrants, as thousands of new arrivals headed into neighbouring Croatia instead.

In a defence of its decision to fence off its frontier and repel migrants with tear gas and water cannon, the Government said the fact that migrants were now seeking other routes into Europe vindicated its strategy.

Janos Lazar, the chief of staff to Viktor Orban, the country's right-wing Prime Minister, said the "assertive, uncompromising defence of the border has visibly held back human trafficking and forces them to change direction".

"That was the aim of the entire action."

The comments from Mr Orban's office will cause anger among other European Union member states, which will hold a major meeting next week in yet another bid to hammer out a common approach to the crisis.

Budapest's uncompromising stance, which led to fierce clashes earlier this week as Hungarian riot police began turning migrants away from the border, was also denounced by Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary-General.

The UN's top official said he was "shocked" by Hungary's actions, adding that people "fleeing war and persecution ... must be treated with human dignity".