Bleary-eyed migrants pave new path in the EU

(TOVARNIK) - Led by two mysterious women, the first busload of bleary-eyed migrants walked into the corn fields bordering Croatia on Wednesday, forging a path that looks set to become the next major route into the European Union.

The group of around 40 migrants and refugees arrived in the pre-dawn darkness of a Serbian border town called Sid with little idea what was happening or where they were heading, knowing only that Hungary had shut its border and another route had to be found.

"We don't know what we should do now. Do we have to catch a boat?" asked Amadou, a 35-year-old Mauritanian, as he got down from the bus. He looked stunned to hear he was part of the first-ever group of migrants to arrive in this town since the crisis, having taken an overnight bus from the Macedonian border.

There was no river, but there was a very long walk, led by two blonde Serbian women who refused to give their names or organisation, just saying "we are afraid for them -- we're trying to bring them to a safe place."

After walking them out of Sid and down the main road towards the Croatian border, the women stopped at a turning into farmland and told the group to keep walking. Then they disappeared.

- A long hike -

The migrants, unable to communicate, followed the order as the sun rose. It was a long hike through hedgerows and overgrown paths. Some were carrying babies just a few months old.

Elderly women struggled to keep up. A few children amused themselves gathering plums from the trees and throwing them at each other.

Waqar, a 26-year-old from Pakistan, said they had "no choice" after Hungary sealed its border on Monday.

"We're feeling very bad right now because we are very tired. We don't have any water, any food."

There were frequent stops for rest and to eat fruit from the trees before pressing on.

Eventually, they reached the border. Unlike neighbouring Hungary, there was no fence -- only a small stone marking the frontier.

Then, a police car arrived. The two policemen seemed puzzled this group had wandered so far away from the official crossing.

They sat the migrants down and radioed for help. Before long, a police van had arrived and shuttled them over the border to a police station in the town of Tovarnik, just inside Croatia.

As the morning progressed, police vans appeared occasionally at the station, unloading more migrants. A spokesman said they had picked up almost 200 by midday -- some of which were then boarded on to buses and driven away.

Back on the other side of the border, more were coming.

"Tell me what to do. I don't know," said Fadl Nusr, a 55-year-old Iraqi from Baghdad, who got a taxi to Sid from Belgrade, 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the south-east.

"The taxi driver was a bad man. He dropped us in town and we have to walk a very long way down this highway. And I have a bad heart.

"We are desperate to know what to do, but I don't know about Croatia."

None of those arriving appeared to have heard of Croatia, which only joined the EU in 2013. Their sights were set on countries further north, although many had yet to make up their mind.

"We want to go anywhere there is peace," said Amadou.

Although the UN advises them to take legal options and present themselves to police wherever possible, even the aid agencies are unable to keep up with the rapidly changing rules across Europe.

Nusr and his group of fellow Iraqis, about a kilometre from the official border crossing, could not muster enough trust in the official process.

He smiled and shrugged, and headed off into the corn fields.