Weather takes turn
Stifling heat gives way to cold and rain,
BUDAPEST, HUNGARY— Soaked to the bone and ankle-deep in mud, thousands of people seeking refuge in Europe are finding that their path to a new life is growing harder by the hour.
Torrential rains poured as an unprecedented 7,000 trekkers crossed the Greek border into Macedonia on Thursday past rows of camouflage-jacketed police. Children stumbled into mud-filled potholes and had to be pulled back out, bawling, into their mothers’ arms. People struggled to find anything — plastic sheets, garbage bags, even a beach umbrella — to shield themselves from an unrelenting deluge. And yet nothing could dampen their hopes of reaching the heart of Europe, where asylum and border security systems are already in danger of being overwhelmed in the migration crisis.
“I’m not going to be afraid of anything,” said Waseem Absi, a 30-yearold from Ariha in northern Syria, as he held a disassembled pup tent over his head and trudged up a muddy slope alongside four friends. He said he hopes to reunite with relatives in the Netherlands.
The sudden onset of autumn has taken tens of thousands by surprise all along the Balkans route from Greece to Hungary, the main gateway to Western Europe for more than 160,000 asylum seekers already this year.
As recently as last week, those making the epic journey, much of it on foot, were baking in a region-wide heat wave and free to sleep under the stars. Now they’re without shelter and struggling to keep campfires burning, highlighting the inadequate support provided by several European governments at each border crossing.
International aid workers said Hungary has failed to provide sufficient shelter at migrant bottlenecks on the border, particularly near the village of Roszke. The country instead is investing in a new security regime, supposed to begin Sept. 15, designed to close its border with Serbia and backed by more than 3,000 troops, many of whom conducted drills Thursday in co-operation with Serbian colleagues.
“The situation here is really a big disaster because a lot of refugees are coming every hour from the border from Serbia to Hungary, to Roszke, and we don’t have real infrastructure here,” said Kathrin Niedermoser, whose Austrian charity for asylum seekers provided what food it could keep from getting wet.
“We have small tents, now it’s raining, and all the things are getting wet.”
Conditions improved farther north on the route. Austrian police said more than 6,000 crossed Thursday from Hungary, chiefly near the town of Nickelsdorf, where authorities struggled to find enough buses, trains and emergency shelter.
Most went to nearby towns, but more than 1,000 stayed in huge halls filled with beds near the border.