THOUSANDS TRY TO HEAD WEST
CROWDED on to a railway platform but barred from boarding trains, angry refugees confronted police in the latest flashpoint of Europe’s migration crisis.
Less than 24 hours after thousands were allowed to board trains to Austria and Germany, hundreds of Syrians poured into the railway station in Hungary.
But they were met by riot police who forced them out, prompting protests from migrants chanting, ‘Let us go,’ and, ‘Germany! Germany!’
Scuffles broke out outside Keleti train station in Budapest as desperation boiled over, with passports, train tickets and even babies waved in the air by Syrians fleeing Islamic State.
They had risked treacherous sea crossings and crawled under razor-wire border fences, they said – only to find they were 24 hours too late.
On Monday, authorities let thousands of migrants – without EU visas to enter and move within the borderless Schengen zone – take trains to Germany and Austria. Hungary is within the Schengen area but not cope with the influx while othmost migrants in Budapest wanted ers, such as Germany, have called
on EU nations to accept refugees. to travel to Germany and Austria.
At Keleti, a makeshift camp But yesterday migrants arriving sprang up outside the station. Hasat Budapest’s Keleti station yessan, a 47-year- old Syrian, said he terday were barred from boarding and two friends had bought train trains, despite having spent huntickets to Germany that they were dreds of euros on tickets. barred from using. He said: ‘They
The station was later reopened to took 125 euros (£92) for each ticket Europeans and those with visas, to Munich or Berlin, then they but not the migrants. stopped us and forced us from the
Budapest has become a key stagstation. They said, “No trains, this ing post on the route from the Midstation is closed.”’ dle East and Africa to Germany. Muhab, an English teacher from More than 156,000 migrants are said Idlib, said: ‘No one can imagine what to have entered Hungary this year, it is like in Syria – to be attacked for with 50,000 in August alone. four years, to have no water or elec
The crisis has polarised opinion in tricity. Where will I go now?’ Europe, with countries including Marah, a 20-year- old who travItaly and Greece warning they can- elled from Aleppo with her family, said they had bought six tickets to Vienna. She said: ‘We are thousands here, where should we go?’
Hungary itself has taken an increasingly tough stance against migrants, building a razor-wire fence along its border with Serbia. Defence minister Csaba Hende said up to 3,500 soldiers could be sent to the border, though troops would not use deadly force.
The government in Budapest reacted angrily to criticism it had ignored EU laws – which require migrants to apply for asylum the first EU nation they enter – when it allowed thousands to travel to northern Europe on Monday.
Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said it would register asylum seekers but send economic migrants back. He said: ‘We cannot give shelter to the economic migrants, we cannot bear that burden, so they will be returned where they come from.’
Migrants still travelling to Hungary said they felt they were being forced into the hands of traffickers and people-smugglers.
Mohammad, a 25-year-old from Homs in Syria who had just arrived in Serbian capital Belgrade, said he wanted to go to Germany but was already disillusioned. He said: ‘However much we have suffered, we are seen as illegals here, not as people who need shelter and care. We leave our countries to flee oppression, but we find on the way that our dignity and humanity are totally lost. Nobody cares if we live or die.’
The chaotic stand- off at Keleti station was in marked contrast to the scenes that greeted those who had been allowed to board Monday’s trains.
In Vienna, 20,000 people took to the streets to show support after 71 migrants were found dead in a lorry near the Austrian border with Hungary last week. And in Munich police said they had been ‘overwhelmed’ by donations of food, clothing, medicine and water, even appealing for the gifts to stop.
Comment – Page 14
‘Cannot bear the burden’