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ByDanicaKirkaand Dusan Stojanovic The Associated Press ZAGREB, CROATIA Thou- sands of migrants were trapped Friday in a vicious tug-of-war as bickering Eu- ropean governments shut border crossings, blocked bridges and erected new barbed-wire fences in a bid to stem the wave of human- ity fleeing conflict and pov- erty 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 bor- der just days earlier found themselves being returned to Serbia, where their or- deal began, after Croatia declared it could not han- dle the influx. The EU's failure to find a unified response to the crisis left this tiny Balkan nation, one of the poor- est in the European Union, squeezed between the block- ades thrown up by Hungary and Slovenia and the unend- ing 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-seek- ers could not stay. "What else can we do?" Milanovic said at a news conference. "You are wel- come in Croatia and you can pass through Croatia. But go on.Notbecausewedon'tlike you, but because this is not your final destination." 'Abrain' "Croatia has shown it has a heart," he said. "We also need to show we have a brain." Across eastern Europe, barriers to the migrants' passage were thrown up as nationstriedtoshiftthebur- den of handling the influx ontotheirneighbors,leaving asylum-seekers ever more desperate and confused. Croatia declared itself overwhelmed and began busing migrants to Hun- gary and closing its border crossings with Serbia. Slo- venia halted rail service to Croatia and was sending migrants back there, while Hungary began building yet another razor-wire bor- der 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 wealth- ier 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 Uni- versity 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 coordi- nated approach toward the reception of these displaced persons." Most migrants don't want to stay in Croatia — only one womanwithchildrenhasre- quested asylum, the coun- try'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 vi- olate European Union rules. Croatia is part of the EU but not a party to the Schengen treaty, which al- lows people to travel freely between 26 European coun- tries without showing their passports. Slovenia and Hungary are treaty mem- bers and say they are pro- tecting Europe's borders. Events in the Balkans have underscored the fail- ures of the EU's common asylum policy, which calls for a "joint approach to guarantee high standards of protection for refugees." Though the EU says "asy- lum must not be a lottery," scenes from Croatia on Fri- day showed it isn't working out that way. "The emergency is being actively reproduced by the refusal to acknowledge the reality on the ground. Mi- grants and refugees have a goal in mind — to reach Germany, France, the Neth- erlands, Britain, Sweden and so forth," Albahari said. "Many have gone through political violence, exploita- tion by smugglers, and the peril of crossing the Med- iterranean. Fences are not only proving futile: They are actively contributing to ex- asperation and to needless, additional suffering for fam- iliesandvulnerablepersons." Finger-pointing The finger-pointing among leaders has be- come vicious. Croatia and Hungary bickered into the night, with Croatia say- ing the two countries had agreed to create a corridor for the migrants and the Hungarian Foreign Minis- try calling that a "pure lie." Hungary's foreign min- ister, Peter Szijjarto, called the Croatian prime minis- ter's handing of the migrant crisis "pathetic." "Hypocrisy rules in Eu- rope today. No one is say- ing honestly how big a chal- lenge this is," Szijjarto told the MTI news agency. "This will not end soon." It is also causing tremen- dous strain on relations be- tween neighbors in a region with a volatile past. Croa- tia, Serbia and Slovenia are all products of the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Even before the latest crisis, many efforts to restore nor- malcy have been hard won. In a sign of the discord, Hungarian authorities seized a Croatian train car- rying 1,000 migrants as it crossed into Hungary, ac- cusing its neighbor of fail- ing to coordinate the trans- port. The train's conductor was taken into custody and 40 Croatian police officers escorting it were disarmed, said homeland security ad- viser Gyorgy Bakondi. Hungary denied asser- tions by Croatian officials that the transport had been coordinated by the two gov- ernments. "These people were coming toward the border without prior con- sultation, without respect- ing official channels," gov- ernment spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said. The U.N. refugee agency warned the crisis was being worsened by the contradic- tory national policies. "The crisis is growing and being pushed from one country to another," said Adrian Edwards of UNHCR. "You aren't going to solve these problems by closing borders." ASYLUM-SEEKERS Europeans shut borders, block bridges, to halt migrant surge SHUJIKAJIYAMA—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A protester wearing a mask of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gestures during a rally in front of the parliament building in Tokyo, on Friday. By Mari Yamaguchi The Associated Press TOKYO Japan's parlia- ment has approved con- tentious legislation that enhances the role of the country's military by loos- ening post-World War II constraints, as the ruling bloc defeated opposition parties' last-ditch effort to block a vote. The upper house's ap- proval in the early hours of Saturday makes the legislation into law, rein- terpreting Japan's consti- tution and fundamentally changing the way it uses its military. Opponents say it violates Japan's constitu- tion and puts the country at risk of becoming em- broiled in U.S.-led wars. The legislation has sparked protests and de- bate about whether Japan should shift away from its pacifist ways to face grow- ing security challenges. Rallies have spread across the nation especially af- ter the ruling parties ap- proved the bills in July in the more powerful lower house. Japan's military can now defend its allies even when the country isn't under at- tack — for the first time since the end of the World War II — and work more closely with the U.S. and other nations. Japan will also be able to participate more fully in international peacekeeping, compared to its previous, mostly hu- manitarian, missions. "The legislation is nec- essary in order to protect the people's lives and their peaceful livelihood, and it is to prevent a war," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said after the passage of a total of 11 bills — one related to international peacekeeping and a package of 10 others designed to allow Japan's military to defend its allies in an action called "collec- tive self-defense." Dozens of constitution scholars, lawyers and other legal experts have joined protests, saying the legis- lation allowing Japan to use force to settle interna- tional disputes violates its U.S.-drafted postwar con- stitution that renounces a right to wage war. China said it and other Asian neighbors are closely watching the vote because of Japan's wartime aggres- sion. "We demand that Ja- pan genuinely listen to just appeals from both at home and abroad, learn- ing from historical lessons and adhering to the path of peaceful development," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing Fri- day. Previous postwar gov- ernments had all made the notion of collective self-defense unconstitu- tional. But Abe's Cabinet last year decided to allow it by unilaterally adopt- ing a new interpretation of the constitution, in- stead of formally revising the charter, saying it must be adapted to today's chal- lenging security environ- ment. The constitutional reinterpretation triggered public criticism that Abe's government undermined democracy. Opponents also say the change would cause Japan to do more in the bilateral alliance with the U.S. Japan enhances role of military POST-WORLD WAR II CONSTRAINTS PETR DAVID JOSEK — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Migrants crowd to board a train at the station in Tovarnik, Croatia, Friday. 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