A group of migrants, including some 100 men and boys, mostly from Afghanistan and Pakistan, who protest Europe's closed borders say they have launched a hunger strike a few days ago to send a message to European leaders.The migrants have been protesting Europe's migrant policies for several days now. Last weekend, they staged a march to Serbia's border with EU member Hungary, where they stopped in a dusty field near the border without any facilities, accepting only water from humanitarian groups.The migrants said in desperation on Wednesday that no one seems to care. Holding banners reading "Your Silence is Hurting Us" and "We Were All Born Free," the migrants protested calmly in small groups, some with blankets or towels on their heads to protect them from the scorching sun. Their eyes blurred from the heat, some migrants collapsed getting up, as others rushed to their aid."The situation is turning from bad to worse," said Roohulamin Afridi, 33, from Afghanistan, a protest leader. "We have been on hunger strike for the past four days."As a Serbian ambulance arrived to the scene, Roohulamin said that several men have already collapsed and were taken to a local hospital.Some 300 men set off on foot Friday from Belgrade, the Serbian capital, toward the Hungarian border, 200 kilometers (120 miles) away, seeking to draw attention to the plight of the several thousand people who have been stuck in Serbia and other Balkan countries after the so-called Balkan refugee route closed in March.The U.N. said each day a total of only 30 asylum-seekers are allowed to enter Hungary, while "hundreds more have had to wait for weeks out in the open in often desperate and inhumane conditions." Humanitarian organizations, led by the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), deliver aid to migrants, but sanitation conditions in the Horgos camp are extremely poor, as the camp has only a few toilets and no bathrooms. The only available water tap is mobbed by people trying to wash and do laundry. Some of those in the camp have already tried to sneak across the border – unsuccessfully. According to Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC), more than 17,000 irregular migrants have been apprehended by Hungarian authorities since the beginning of the year. Newcomers face weeks or even months of waiting, while single men have little hope of making it across the border.Gyorgy Bakondi, national security adviser to Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, says Hungary wants to have full control over the migrant influx."We would like to avoid causing domestic security tensions in Hungary or other countries as a result of a bad decision on the part of the authorities," Bakondi insists, dismissing the migrant protest as "staged performances" designed to elevate pressure and draw media attention.Protest leader Roohulamin describes the situation at the border as "disheartening," saying that "hundreds are languishing" at the border camp and "nobody cares.""We don't have anything to do, we don't have any choice except to be on hunger strike," Roohulamin says.No incidents have yet been reported at the protest site, watched closely by the Serbian police. A few hundred meters away, a small tent city hosts several hundred more migrants, including families with small children. Migrants cover their tents with tree branches for protection, while children play volleyball over a net made out of old clothes and blankets.Faced with the pileup of migrants on its territory, Serbian authorities have also announced tougher controls on the Balkan country's borders with Macedonia and Bulgaria, where most migrants enter Serbia. With EU nations eager to curb the influx after more than one million asylum-seekers came in 2015, many migrants have turned to people smugglers and used clandestine routes to get in.Aid workers say some 600 migrants are currently staying in the camp at Horgos. Nebojsa Covic, a field associate from the U.N. refugee agency, says "people are aware of their prospects ... waiting patiently for their turn."Covic says the group of protesting migrants, who arrived on Sunday, have "refused food, taking only water."Among them is 18-year-old Minhajuddin Wahaj from Afghanistan. Minhajuddin says he left his home in Kabul some six months ago and traveled through Iran, Turkey and Greece before reaching Serbia. He joined the hunger strike on Tuesday. "I don't want to be in war any more, that is why I left my country," Minhajuddin says, adding that his family stayed behind, but that "they are not safe in Kabul." "Nobody is safe in Afghanistan," he says. "I am looking for a safe place on this Earth."Resentment against the migrants has been growing across Europe, with populist politicians often raising their voice against the EU's migrant policies. Hungary's right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Tuesday described the arrival of asylum seekers in Europe as "a poison," saying his country did not want or need "a single migrant."