ZAGREB, Sept 16 (Hina) - Three buses carrying refugees arrived at the Registration Centre in Jezevo and a train that had set out to pick up refugees in the eastern border town of Tovarnik arrived in Vinkovci on Wednesday afternoon.
Refugees continued arriving in Tovarnik, and were transferred to the main registration centre in Jezevo, just east of Zagreb, police said on Wednesday.
According to information from the Ministry of the Interior, 373 refugees had been received in the Tovarnik police station by 2pm, including 225 men, 75 women and 73 children. Given the pace of their arrival, the police said it was not possible to give the precise number of refugees coming to Tovarnik.
Three buses carrying 163 refugees arrived at the Jezevo centre in the afternoon, the first one arriving there shortly before 4pm. Most of the refugees who arrived at the centre were women and children along with a few middle-aged and younger men. They all looked tired and weary.
Dr Shoukry Nizar, a Syrian employed at the Tovarnik health centre for three and a half years, is helping the police by acting as an interpreter in interviews with refugees arriving in Croatia. He told the press on Wednesday that what was happening was sad and could happen to anyone.
"I see women and children walking around hungry, sleeping rough. Everyone should respond humanely," he said. "I've told the refugees they are welcome here as human beings, without violence, that they have come to a nice country with nice people."
Dr Nizar, who is married to a Croatian and considers himself Croatian, said that along with Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis a certain number of people not speaking Arabic had also arrived, presumably people from Albania or Kosovo.
(Hina) vm/sp