Police in Hungary say a record high of 10,046 refugees crossed the border into the country on Wednesday, amid the unprecedented influx of asylum seekers to Europe.

Data showed that a total of 9,939 refugees entered Hungary from Croatia while 102 crossed from Serbia. The police, meanwhile, failed to explain the discrepancy of five refugees in the figures.

The last record was registered on September 14, when 9,380 refugees set foot on Hungarian soil.

The central European country closed its border with Serbia last week in a move that caused thousands of refugees to move to Croatia which, in turn, started redirecting them to the Hungarian border.

The asylum seekers, who are escaping conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, are taken to the Austrian border after entering Hungary. From Austria, they strive to travel to northern Europe, particularly to Sweden and Germany, which have relaxed asylum rules for Syrians.

On Tuesday, the interior ministers of the European Union (EU) adopted by majority a resolution to distribute some 120,000 refugees among the bloc’s member states, a decision that irked some Central and Eastern European countries, namely the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, which oppose the mandatory quotas in sharing the refugee exodus.

‘Root causes must be addressed’

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has described the relocation deal as being far from what is needed to resolve the huge crisis.

“I am deeply convinced that what Europe needs is not just selective relocation of this kind, but much more a durable process for fairly distributing refugees among member states,” Merkel told parliament on Thursday, adding, “A first step has been taken, but we are still far from where we should be.”

In order to tackle the refugee crisis, she further said, the causes of the exodus must be addressed.

“That can only happen with the support of our transatlantic partners, the United States, as well as with Russia and the states of the region of the Middle East because of the dreadful situation in Syria,” she said.

According to estimates by the UN refugee agency, the Syrian crisis has seen over 477,900 people stream into Europe from the Middle East, Africa and Asia so far.

Reports said about 1,200 refugees arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos from Turkey on Thursday in less than an hour.