Thousands of migrants were trapped Friday in a vicious tug-of-war as bickering European governments shut border crossings, blocked bridges and erected new barbed-wire fences in a bid to stem the wave of humanity fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.

Asylum-seekers who fled westward after being beaten back by tear gas and water cannon on the Hungarian-Serbian border just days earlier found themselves being returned to Serbia, where their ordeal began, after Croatia declared it could not handle the influx.

The EU’s failure to find a unified response to the crisis left this tiny Balkan nation, one of the poorest in the European Union, squeezed between the blockades thrown up by Hungary and Slovenia and the unending flood of people flowing north from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

With more than 17,089 migrants arriving in just three days, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic declared that his nation of 4.2 million could no longer cope and the asylum-seekers could not stay.

“What else can we do?” Milanovic said at a news conference. “You are welcome in Croatia and you can pass through Croatia. But go on. Not because we don’t like you, but because this is not your final destination.”

“Croatia has shown it has a heart,” he said. “We also need to show we have a brain.”
Refugees gather at the train station in Beli Manastir, near Hungarian border, northeast Croatia, early Friday, Sept. 18, 2015. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Refugees gather at the train station in Beli Manastir, near Hungarian border, northeast Croatia, early Friday, Sept. 18, 2015. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)

Across eastern Europe, barriers to the migrants’ passage were thrown up as nations tried to shift the burden of handling the influx onto their neighbors, leaving asylum-seekers ever more desperate and confused.

Croatia declared itself overwhelmed and began busing migrants to Hungary and closing its border crossings with Serbia. Slovenia halted rail service to Croatia and was sending migrants back there, while Hungary began building yet another razor-wire border fence, this time on its border with Croatia.

Caught in the middle of this high-stakes game of hot potato were the masses of miserable men, women and children who have found their way to the wealthier European nations they wish to settle in blocked at every turn.

“We are seeing the result of haphazard policies,” said Maurizio Albahari, a social anthropologist at the University of Notre Dame and author of “Crimes of Peace: Mediterranean Migrations at the World’s Deadliest Border.”

“The situation is largely due to the lack of a coordinated approach toward the reception of these displaced persons.”

Most migrants don’t want to stay in Croatia — only one woman with children has requested asylum, the country’s foreign minister said. Instead, they are trying to reach Western European countries like Germany that have said they are welcome.

While Croatia is happy to let people pass through, Hungary and Slovenia say allowing the migrants to cross their borders would violate European Union rules.