"I hope Serbia will realise that these people should be helped by sending them by the shortest and simplest route. They (Serbia) won't take revenge on Croatia by sending us 500 people to some border crossing. They won't even upset us. That's just bad for the people who are here," Kotromanovic said at the Opatovac reception centre, adding that "there's no need to take it out on the refugees."
Asked by the press what Croatia would do if Serbia did not start letting refugees through Horgos, he said Croatia would continue to do what it was doing. "It's a longer, harder, more torturous path for these people. But we are prepared and organised and already thinking about what to do when winter comes."
"We know that about 5,000 people have crossed the Macedonian border and they will reach Croatia... We have an agreement with the Hungarians and are now trying to reach such an agreement with Serbia so that they direct refugees to the most acceptable border crossing," he said, adding that for Croatia this was Tovarnik because refugees could be transported by train.
Kotromanovic called for calming the relations with Serbia, saying that "those deciding on the transfer of refugees to Bapska one minute and to Tovarnik or some place else the next must know that among those people are children aged one, two or three and that that's inhumane."
"We must have the fastest and best way to provide for these people, instead of playing ping pong with them. They just want to cross Serbia, Croatia and Hungary on their way to Europe," the minister said, adding that talks were constantly being held with Serbia at numerous levels.
"I know that the (Croatian) prime minister is trying and talking with the prime ministers in the region and we'll see what happens in the days and weeks ahead. Our estimate is that this will last a few more months."
Kotromanovic said 1,300 refugees entered and 2,700 left Croatia over the past night. Police said 73,500 migrants had entered Croatia since September 16.