EUROPE-MIGRANTS/AUSTRIA SYRIAN REFUGEE Syrian refugee arriving in Austria says treated "like an animal" in Hungary
Record ID:
139938
EUROPE-MIGRANTS/AUSTRIA SYRIAN REFUGEE Syrian refugee arriving in Austria says treated "like an animal" in Hungary
- Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/AUSTRIA SYRIAN REFUGEE Syrian refugee arriving in Austria says treated "like an animal" in Hungary
- Date: 12th September 2015
- Summary: NICKELSDORF, AUSTRIA (SEPTEMBER 12, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TENTS SET UP AT BORDER BY AUSTRIAN ARMY MIGRANTS OUTSIDE TENTS VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS SLEEPING INSIDE TENTS VARIOUS OF CUSTOMS AREA AT BORDER BEING USED BY RED CROSS (SOUNDBITE) (English) REFUGEE FROM SYRIA, SAEED, SAYING: "We came from Hungary and it was much more like Syria. The situation is so bad. The whole world needs to do something to this Hungarian government. They put us in jails. We were for a week there, so little food, one of these little breads in the morning and one at the night. The situation is so bad. The kids, all the kids if you can see them here, they all have a cold. And I have a cold, everyone has a cold because there is no heating or anything there. They put us in jails, they treated us like criminals, like animals maybe, I don't know. It's more like animals." RED CROSS HANDING OUT FOOD TO MIGRANTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) REFUGEE FROM SYRIA, SAEED, SAYING: "They put us in one small room that for maybe 20 persons and we were 70. We had to sleep standing up for the little kids to be on the ground and for us young guys to be standing up all night." VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS LOOKING THROUGH CLOTHES (SOUNDBITE) (English) REFUGEE FROM SYRIA, SAEED, SAYING: "We are just looking for peace, we escaped war and we don't want to be treated like that. We escaped that in my country, Syria. I escaped from Syria because I wasn't treated like a person, like a human being there and I came to Hungary and I was treated like an animal." VOLUNTEER HOLDING BABY (SOUNDBITE) (English) REFUGEE FROM SYRIA, SAEED, SAYING: "In Hungary there were no media. They put us in secret places. I don't know where, there was no media. There was no medical care, no Red Cross, no anything. They took our fingerprints without us knowing anything. They just gave us papers written in Hungarian. I didn't know how to read them. I didn't know what my fingerprints were on. I just had to do that because if I didn't do that, they would throw us to Romania. What to do in Romania? There is nothing to do in Romania." EMPTY BOWLS (SOUNDBITE) (English) REFUGEE FROM SYRIA, SAEED, SAYING: "Whenever I asked anyone, I speak English, I talked to them in English. They say, we don't know, you have to do that. Where are we going? They took us from one camp to another camp to a third one to a fourth camp. And they finally take us to a fifth camp next to the Austrian border and now we came here. It was six days of hell." SAEED AND FRIENDS MAKING 'VICTORY' SIGN VARIOUS OF RED CROSS WORKERS OPERATIONS MANAGER OF RED CROSS, KARL WANDL BEING INTERVIEWED RED CROSS BADGE ON SLEEVE (SOUNDBITE) (German) OPERATIONS MANAGER OF RED CROSS, KARL WANDL, SAYING: "It is the children who suffer most, who are struggling with colds and adults whose feet are also suffering. They have bad shoes, the damp, and the nights are already quite cold. That will be a problem in the future for the people. I hope it improves soon." VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS QUEUING FOR BUSES
- Embargoed: 27th September 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Austria
- Country: Austria
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA6HSR2OLJJV2AZO45WYESJLL2G
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A Syrian refugee has spoken of his relief at arriving in Austria after a distressing experience travelling through neighbouring Hungary.
Speaking to Reuters in Nickelsdorf, the main crossing point for migrants coming into Austria, 25-year-old Saeed said the conditions in Hungary for migrants were not what he had been expecting after leaving behind a war in his own country.
"We came from Hungary and it was much more like Syria. The situation is so bad. The whole world needs to do something to this Hungarian government. They put us in jails. We were for a week there, so little food, one of these little breads in the morning and one at the night. The situation is so bad. The kids, all the kids if you can see them here, they all have a cold. And I have a cold, everyone has a cold because there is no heating or anything there. They put us in jails, they treated us like criminals, like animals maybe, I don't know. It's more like animals," said Saeed who arrived on foot over the border early on Saturday (September 12) morning.
"They put us in one small room that for maybe 20 persons and we were 70. We had to sleep standing up for the little kids to be on the ground and for us young guys to be standing up all night," he added.
More than 170,000 migrants have crossed into Hungary from non-EU Serbia so far this year. Many try to avoid being registered in Hungary for fear of being stranded there or returned to the country later in their journey across Europe.
Hungarian police said on Friday they had launched an investigation after an online video showed a crowd of migrants clamouring for food in a hangar at a reception centre as police in surgical masks throw out packs of sandwiches.
The description of the footage says it was taken at a refugee camp in Roszke on Hungary's southern border with Serbia, where thousands of migrants have been crossing into the European Union every day.
Saeed accused the Hungarian authorities of treating migrants and refugees badly.
"We are just looking for peace, we escaped war and we don't want to be treated like that. We escaped that in my country, Syria. I escaped from Syria because I wasn't treated like a person, like a human being there and I came to Hungary and I was treated like an animal," said Saeed.
"In Hungary there were no media. They put us in secret places. I don't know where, there was no media. There was no medical care, no Red Cross, no anything. They took our fingerprints without us knowing anything. They just gave us papers written in Hungarian. I didn't know how to read them. I didn't know what my fingerprints were on. I just had to do that because if I didn't do that, they would throw us to Romania. What to do in Romania? There is nothing to do in Romania," he added.
There have been growing signs of Hungary's inability to handle the flood of more than 170,000 people this year seeking sanctuary in Europe from war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.
Refugees stranded at the border have waited days to be registered, while conditions at makeshift frontier camps are basic. Medical care for the crowds at Budapest's railway stations has been provided entirely by volunteers.
Saeed said his time in Hungary had been a particularly bad experience.
"Whenever I asked anyone, I speak English, I talked to them in English. They say, we don't know, you have to do that. Where are we going? They took us from one camp to another camp to a third one to a fourth camp. And they finally take us to a fifth camp next to the Austrian border and now we came here. It was six days of hell," he said.
Saeed was one of the around 500 migrants who crossed into Austria on foot since midnight on Friday (September 11), police said, after some 6,900 arrived on Friday.
A police spokesperson said that of the 500 new arrivals on Saturday, most had been taken by bus or train on to Vienna and other locations in Austria from where they could continue their journey to Germany if they wished.
Several groups of migrants spent the night in large tents erected by the Austrian army at the border crossing, and the Red Cross were on hand to provide medical care, as well as food, water and clothing to the new arrivals.
"It is the children who suffer most, who are struggling with colds and adults whose feet are also suffering. They have bad shoes, the damp, and the nights are already quite cold. That will be a problem in the future for the people. I hope it improves soon," said Karl Wandl, Saturday's operations manager for the Red Cross in Nickelsdorf.
Since Germany and Austria said last Saturday that they would let the wave of migrants enter their territory, tens of thousands of people have passed through Austria on their way to Germany. Only hundreds have requested asylum in Austria.
The Wiener Zeitung, a daily newspaper, said the crisis would cost Austria an extra one billion euros ($1.13 billion), citing an estimate by the Foreign Ministry, which deals with integration matters. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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