Croatia–Hungary border

The Drava

The Drava rises in the Italian Alps and flows east through Austria and Slovenia. Near Legrad in Croatia the Mura joins it, and from there it forms part of the Croatian–Hungarian border. Larger boats can navigate it downstream from Donji Miholjac, and the Drava valley was historically a route by which invaders from the east, such as the Huns, reached the Alpine lands.^[1]

Before the First World War, Croatia-Slavonia was under Hungary. The Treaty of Trianon in 1920 stripped Hungary of at least two-thirds of its territory and gave Croatia-Slavonia to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the future Yugoslavia.^[2]

2015

In September 2015, after Hungary shut its border with Serbia, refugees, most of them from Syria and Iraq, turned to Croatia. About 13,000 crossed in three days, and many ended up near the Hungarian border around Beli Manastir. From there they entered Hungary at 5,000 to 8,000 a day on their way to Austria and Germany.^[4][3]

Hungary built a steel fence along almost its whole southern frontier, saying it was duty-bound to secure the EU’s borders. At midnight on 16 October 2015 it closed the Croatian border to what it called “illegal migrants”, after a last train brought about 2,000 people to the crossing. Croatia began sending people to Slovenia instead.^[3]

“We know that this is not the best – only the second-best solution.”^[3]