Croatia Serbia Refugees Camp Europe

A Dutch journalist has released footage showing the poor conditions in a Croatian refugee camp after he managed to sneak in by pretending to be a refugee.

Danny Ghosen, a Dutch reporter of Lebanese descent, who works for the Dutch television show 3onderzoekt, entered the camp on the Croatian-Serbian border to highlight the plight of the refugees.

In the footage, which could not be independently verified by Newsweek, Ghosen finds refugees living without proper shelter and sleeping on the floor surrounded by fences. It is believed that the camp is in Opatovice, a village in eastern Croatia, according to a tweet sent by Dutch politician Judith Sargentini.

Ghosen managed to gain entry to the camp without any papers, giving the name Qalid Gasan, and passed the medical tests and administration stages, while filming the whole process. In the video he is shown holding up the identity paper given to him by the camp staff with the number '2927' and 'Qalid Gasan' written on it before having his photo taken by staff.

"This is unbelievable. I've just registered as a Syrian refugee. And I'm still a student. I'm 34 years old," he says as he walks away from the entrance process. "I'm shaking. I'm afraid what they could have done to me if they had caught me."

Ghosen concludes the video by giving his thoughts on the conditions he has witnessed. "I'm inside the camp and I am shocked. What I see is totally absurd. People are lying on each other," he says. "It's unbelievable. I want to leave this place as soon as possible. To stay here one day is OK with me. This is crazy. This is inhumane."

Croatia said earlier this month that it Hungary closed its border with Serbia, forcing the refugees to find another route into the bloc.

On Wednesday, Croatia's Interior Ministry said that the total number of migrants to have entered the country was now at 44,000 but did not specify a time period for when they had begun recording arrivals into the country.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of causing the current refugee crisis on the continent. "Mrs Merkel called them, and now she's pulled the handbrake by saying Germany cannot absorb all these economic migrants," she told Croatian television, according to the Daily Telegraph.

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"She makes out as if she wasn't aware that pulling the handbrake when so many cars were on the road would cause chaos. This needs to be resolved now."

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