EUROPE-MIGRANTS/AUSTRIA BORDER POLICE More migrants cross Austrian border on their long journey to Europe

Record ID: 139954

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/AUSTRIA BORDER POLICE More migrants cross Austrian border on their long journey to Europe
  • Date: 12th September 2015
  • Summary: NICKELSDORF, AUSTRIA (SEPTEMBER 12, 2015) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS WALKING OVER BORDER INTO AUSTRIA MIGRANTS SITTING ON ROAD AT BORDER VARIOUS OF SIGN FOR AUSTRIA POLICE AT AUSTRIAN BORDER AS MIGRANTS WALK OVER TRAFFIC CONE ON ROAD AT BORDER (SOUNDBITE) (German) SPOKESPERSON FOR BURGENLAND POLICE, HELMUT MARBAN, SAYING: "Last night the situation calmed down a bit here in Nickelsdorf. Yesterday we had 6,900 people crossing the border in a period of 24 hours. There were nearly 500 this morning by 0800 and now it is around 1,000 people. That is the current situation. We have already taken hundreds of people to Vienna on buses and the rest are waiting here. I think this will continue today throughout the day and we are currently organising everything." VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS QUEUING TO GET ON BUS MIGRANTS GETTING ONTO BUS VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS QUEUING TO GET ONTO BUSES (SOUNDBITE) (German) SPOKESPERSON FOR BURGENLAND POLICE, HELMUT MARBAN, SAYING: "The atmosphere is the same. The people are happy to be safely in Austria and that they are being provided for. We are really trying at the moment, as we have in the last days, to take the people away from Nickelsdorf as quickly as possible so that they can continue on their journey." VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS QUEUING
  • Embargoed: 27th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Austria
  • Country: Austria
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9LXQW7SEO45XKNE51FVNFFJ4X
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Migrants continued to stream over the border from Hungary into Austria on Saturday (September 12), but numbers have fallen since the previous day, Austrian police said.
    "Last night the situation calmed down a bit here in Nickelsdorf. Yesterday we had 6,900 people crossing the border in a period of 24 hours. There were nearly 500 this morning by 0800 and now it is around 1,000 people. That is the current situation. We have already taken hundreds of people to Vienna on buses and the rest are waiting here. I think this will continue today throughout the day and we are currently organising everything," Helmut Marban, spokesperson for the police in the region of Burgenland told Reuters.
    People could still be seen walking over the border on foot, having disembarked from trains at the nearby Hungarian station of Hegyeshalom, just a couple of kilometres from Austria.
    Austria cut its rail link to Hungary on Thursday, citing a "massive overburdening" of its capacity by migrants who continue to stream in from Hungary, many of them having fled the civil war in Syria and marched through the Western Balkans. The train line will remain closed over the weekend, the rail company said.
    Marban said those arriving at the Nickelsdorf border crossing were happy to be in the country.
    "The atmosphere is the same. The people are happy to be safely in Austria and that they are being provided for. We are really trying at the moment, as we have in the last days, to take the people away from Nickelsdorf as quickly as possible so that they can continue on their journey," Marban said as around 1,000 migrants queued behind him for buses to the capital.
    On Friday (September 11) Austria partly shut a motorway linking Vienna and Hungary as dozens of migrants who had crossed the border set off for the Austrian capital on foot rather than wait for struggling authorities to arrange transport.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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