Austria, Germany open borders to

migrants offloaded by Hungary

Migrants arrive at the Austrian-Hungarian border station of Hegyeshalom, Hungary, September 5, 2015.

Migrants gesture on a bus bound for Austria and Germany, next to the Keleti train station in Budapest, Hungary, September 5,
2015.

HEGYESHALOM, HUNGARY/VIENNA | BY KRISZTINA THAN AND KARIN STROHECKER

Sat Sep 5, 2015

Austria and Germany threw open their borders to thousands of exhausted migrants on
Saturday, bussed to the Hungarian border by a right-wing government that had tried to
stop them but was overwhelmed by the sheer numbers reaching Europes frontiers.
Left to walk the last yards into Austria, rain-soaked migrants, many of them refugees
from Syria's civil war, were whisked by train and shuttle bus to Vienna, where
authorities prompted arranged for thousands to head straight on to Germany.
German police said the first 1,000 of up to 10,000 migrants expected on Saturday had
arrived on special trains in Munich. Austrian police said over 6,000 had entered the
country by midday with more expected in what has become Europes most acute
refugee crisis since the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.
Munich police said Arabic-speaking interpreters helped refugees with procedures at
emergency registration centres. The seemingly efficient Austrian and German
reception contrasted with the disorder prevalent in Hungary.
"It was just such a horrible situation in Hungary," said Omar, arriving in Vienna with his
family.
In Budapest, almost emptied of migrants the night before, the main railway station was
again filling up with new arrivals but trains to western Europe remained cancelled. So
hundreds set off by foot, saying they would walk to the Austrian border, 170 km (110
miles) away, like others had tried on Friday.

After days of confrontation and chaos, Hungarys government deployed over 100
buses overnight to take thousands of migrants to the Austrian frontier. Austria said it
had agreed with Germany to allow the migrants access, waiving asylum rules that
require them to register in the first EU state they reach.
Wrapped in blankets and sleeping bags against the rain, long lines of weary migrants,
many carrying small, sleeping children, got off buses on the Hungarian side of the
boundary and walked into Austria, receiving fruit and water from aid workers. Waiting
Austrians held signs that read, Refugees welcome.
Were happy. Well go to Germany, said a Syrian man who gave his name as
Mohammed, naming Europe's famously biggest and most affluent economy that is the
favoured destination of many refugees. Another, who declined to be named, said:
Hungary should be fired from the European Union. Such bad treatment.
Hungary insisted the bus rides were a one-off, even as hundreds more migrants
gathered in Budapest, part of a seemingly unrelenting human surge northwards
through the Balkan peninsula from Turkey and Greece.
By contrast, the Austrian state railway company OeBB said it had added 4,600 seats
for migrants by extending trains and laying on special, non-scheduled services.
DESPERATE MIGRANTS FORCE HUNGARY'S HAND
Hungary, the main entry point into Europes borderless Schengen zone for migrants,
has taken a hard line, vowing to seal its southern frontier with a new, high fence by
Sept. 15.
Hungarian officials have portrayed the crisis as a defence of Europes prosperity,
identity and Christian values against an influx of mainly Muslim migrants.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday Hungary would deploy police forces
along its border with Serbia after Sept. 15 and the army too if parliament approves a
government proposal.
"Its not 150,000 (migrants coming) that some (in the EU) want to divide according to
quotas, its not 500,000, a figure that I heard in Brussels, its millions, then tens of
millions, because the supply of immigrants is endless," he said.
For days, several thousand camped outside Budapests main railway station, where
trains to western Europe were cancelled as the government insisted all entering
Hungary be registered with asylum applications processed there as per EU rules.
But the logjam broke on Friday when, in separate rapid-fire developments, hundreds
broke out of a teeming camp on Hungarys frontier with Serbia, escaped a stranded
train, and took to the highway by foot chanting Germany, Germany!
The government appeared to throw in the towel, mobilising a fleet of buses to take
them to the Austrian border.

The scenes were emblematic of a crisis -- about 350,000 refugees and migrants have
reached the border of the European Union this year -- that has left the 28-nation EU
groping for solutions amid dysfunctional squabbling over burden-sharing.
At an EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Saturday, the usual diplomatic
conviviality unravelled as they failed to agree on any practical steps out of the crisis.
They are especially at odds over proposals for country-by-country quotas to take in
asylum seekers.
"Given the challenges facing our German friends as well, all of Europe needs to wake
up. (The time for) reverie is over," Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said.
"Now the continent of Europe is challenged. In this great challenge the entire continent
has to give a unified answer. Whoever still thinks that withdrawal from the EU or a
barbed wire fence around Austria will solve the problem is wrong."
British finance minister George Osborne said Europe and Britain must offer asylum to
those genuinely fleeing persecution but also need to boost aid, defeat peoplesmuggling gangs and tackle the conflict in Syria to ease the migrant crisis.
BOY'S BODY ON BEACH PRICKS EU'S CONSCIENCE
Pressure to take effective action rose sharply this week after pictures flashed around
the world of the body of a 3-year-old Syrian Kurdish boy washed up on a Turkish
resort beach, personalising the collective tragedy of the refugees. Aylan Kurdi had
drowned along with his mother and brother while trying to cross by boat on a tiny
rubber dinghy to a Greek island.
Hungary has lashed out at Germany, which expects to receive 800,000 asylum
seekers this year, for declaring it would accept Syrian requests regardless of where
they enter the EU.
Budapest says this has swelled the influx, and like some others in ex-Communist east
European states -- unused to taking in notable numbers of foreigners -- it is resisting
calls by some western EU leaders for each of the blocs 28 members to accept a quota
of refugees. The discord continued on Saturday.
What happened is the consequence of the failed migration policy of the European
Union and the irresponsible statements made by European politicians, Hungarian
Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on arrival at the Luxembourg meeting.
The flow of migrants risking rickety boats to cross the Mediterranean, or batonwielding police on Balkan borders, shows no sign of abating despite more trips by sea
ending in disaster.
Over 2,000 have died at sea so far this year, including 30-40 on Friday who were
reported drowned off Libya's coast.
The Greek coastguard said on Saturday that about 13,370 migrants and refugees had

been ferried from Greece's eastern islands to Athens since Monday.

A record 50,000 hit Greek shores in July alone and were ferried from islands unable to
cope to the mainland by a government already floundering in financial crisis and keen
to dispatch them promptly north into Macedonia, whence they enter Serbia and then
Hungary.
Hungary said on Saturday it had recorded some 165,000 entering so far this year.
Determined to stem the tide, Hungary is building a 3.5-metre (11.5-foot) high fence
along its border with Serbia. On Friday, the Budapest parliament adopted measures
the government says will effectively seal the frontier to migrants as of Sept. 15.
They include transit zones on the border, where asylum seekers would be held until
their requests are processed and, if denied, they would be deported.
(Additional reporting by Sandor Peto and Balazs Koranyi in Budapest, Shadia Nasralla
in Alpbach, Austria, Francois Murphy in Salzburg, Michael Shields in Zurich, Robin
Emmott in Luxembourg and Thomas Seythal in Berlin; Writing by Matt Robinson;
Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Posted by Thavam