(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has criticised the EU for not responding to Hungary's building of a border fence and said Belgrade will build a shelter for thousands of migrants transiting to Western Europe.
"The European Union should not have turned its head away from [the construction of] wires and fences. But it did close its eyes. I think it should have reacted to that," he said.
Vucic was referring to the fence that Hungary erected along its 170km border with Serbia in an attempt to curb the inflow of refugees via the so-called Balkan route € from Turkey, via Greece, Macedonia and Serbia.
"For me, that is horrible ... next someone will run electricity through the fence to finish the job," he said, during a visit to a makeshift refugee camp in a central Belgrade park.
EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos last week criticised Hungary for building the fence. "The commission does not promote the use of fences and encourages member states to use alternative measures."
Thousands of migrants have arrived in Belgrade during the unusually hot and dry summer.
Most camp in the open in the city centre near the train and bus stations, from where they find their way to the Hungarian border.
Vucic pledged that the authorities will build a shelter for up to 3,000 people before the winter.
According to latest Serbian interior ministry data, about 2,000 migrants € mainly from the Middle East € enter Serbia from Macedonia daily.
Nearly 100,000 were estimated to have entered Serbia since the start of the year.
Virtually all regard Serbia as a transit country and do not intend to apply for asylum there.
Like Macedonia in the south, cash-strapped Serbia offers meagre assistance to potential asylum seekers and many face maltreatment from police and other authorities, Amnesty International warned last month.
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