DHAKA: Croatia has opened its border with Serbia, letting in thousands of refugees who had been stranded for nearly two days in the cold.

The opening on Monday partially cleared the human bottleneck that has been building up in the West Balkans.

The humanitarian crisis has been growing since Saturday, when Hungary closed its border with Croatia, creating a backlog of refugees in the region.

UNHCR spokeswoman Melita Sunjic, on the Serbia-Croatia border, said that ‘without any announcement, the borders opened. When the borders opened, everybody rushed’ over, reports Al Jazeera.

‘The last person to go was a young boy without a leg, and we helped him cross in a wheelchair,’ Sunjic said.

There were between 2,000 and 3,000 refugees stuck on the border in the mud and rain when the gates opened.

An empty field littered with some of the refugees’ belongings showed that they were desperate to get on the move again.

Stuffed toys, a milk bottle, a child’s rubber boot, crayons scattered in the mud and soaked blankets were among the items left behind.

BDST: 1224 HRS, OCT 20, 2015
RR