Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Migrant crisis: Hungary rail station move sparks protests

by Isabelle Roussel and Biodun Iginla, BBC News, Budapest

10 minutes ago


Hundreds of migrants have been protesting outside a major railway station in the Hungarian capital after police sealed off the terminal to stop them travelling through the EU.
Crowds chanted "Germany, Germany" and waved train tickets after being forced to leave Keleti station in Budapest.
Hungary is trying to restore order and enforce EU rules, officials said.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for the fair distribution of refugees across Europe.
Austrian police said 3,650 migrants arrived in the Austrian capital, Vienna, from Hungary on Monday, with most heading for Germany.
By Tuesday morning, about 1,400 people had arrived in Munich, southern Germany, after travelling through Austria and more were expected.
Hungarian officials had earlier appeared to abandon efforts to register them under an EU rule, known as the Dublin Regulation, which says they should seek asylum in the first EU country they enter, correspondents say.

The migrants who risk everything for a better life
This West African entered the Spanish territory of Ceuta from Morocco curled up next to a car engine. Read the full story here.

About 1,000 migrants congregated outside Keleti station, in the east of the city, as it was evacuated on Tuesday.
It was closed briefly but soon reopened to non-migrant passengers, with lines of police preventing migrants from going inside.
The BBC's Nick Thorpe in Budapest says hundreds of migrants are circling the area trying to find a way through the guarded entrances.
The decision to allow refugees to board trains on Monday evening and early on Tuesday seems to have been a temporary one to ease the growing pressure at the station, he adds.
Image caption Migrants wave their train tickets outside Keleti station
Image caption Hungarian police briefly closed the station
Image caption These Syrian refugees arrived in Vienna on Tuesday on a train from Budapest
Many protesters complained that they had paid hundreds of euros for tickets to Austria or Germany.
One 20-year-old woman from Aleppo, Syria, named only as Marah, said her family had bought six tickets for a train to Vienna.
"They should find a solution," she told Reuters. "We are thousands here, where should we go?"
The number of migrants entering Europe has reached record levels, with 107,500 arriving in July alone.
Latest figures show more than 239,000 people have arrived in Greece this year and two ferries are due to arrive near Athens on Tuesday carrying more than 4,000 migrants from Greece's overwhelmed eastern Aegean islands.
Germany expects to take in 800,000 migrants this year - four times last year's total.
Labour Minister Andrea Nahles said the influx meant between 240,000 and 460,000 more people could be entitled to social benefits next year, costing the state billions of euros.
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Media caption Angela Merkel says refugees should be fairly divided among EU member states
The German government has already said it is suspending the Dublin rule for Syrians who have travelled to Germany.
After talks with the Spanish prime minister on Tuesday, the German chancellor repeated calls for a unified approach.
Mrs Merkel said she had agreed with PM Mariano Rajoy on the need for registration centres to be set up in Italy and Greece with European co-operation.
Meanwhile Babar Baloch, Central Europe spokesman for the UN's refugee agency, criticised "Europe's ad hoc approach" to the crisis.
Media caption The rules governing immigration to the EU - explained in 90 seconds
The risks for migrants travelling through Europe were highlighted last week by the deaths of 71 people found in a lorry that had travelled to Austria from Budapest.
Most of the dead were thought to be Syrians.
Hundreds more people drowned in the Mediterranean last week while trying to reach Europe from Libya.

10 days of the migrant crisis

  • 21 August: Crowds of migrants rush at Macedonian border forces in an attempt to enter from Greece
  • 27 August: Hundreds of people are feared dead after two boats carrying about 500 migrants sink in the Mediterranean, off Libya; more than 300,000 migrants have risked their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, according to the UN
  • 27 August: A lorry abandoned near Parndorf in Austria is found to have 71 dead people inside, including four children
  • 28 August: Twenty-six migrants are rescued from a van in Austria, near the border with Germany
  • 1 September: Hundreds of migrants arrive by train in Munich, after Hungary abandons efforts to register them

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