EUROPE-MIGRANTS/AUSTRIA HUNGARY TRAIN Train carrying migrants allowed into Austria after lengthy border checks

Record ID: 140573

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/AUSTRIA HUNGARY TRAIN Train carrying migrants allowed into Austria after lengthy border checks
  • Date: 31st August 2015
  • Summary: HEGYESHALOM, HUNGARY (AUGUST 31, 2015) (REUTERS) TRAIN TRAVELLING FROM BUDAPEST TO VIENNA WAITING BESIDE PLATFORM MIGRANTS SITTING / STANDING ON PLATFORM MIGRANTS BOARDING TRAIN VARIOUS OF CHILDREN ON PLATFORM MIGRANT WOMAN SITTING INSIDE TRAIN LOOKING OUT OF WINDOW MIGRANTS ON PLATFORM VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS CRAMMED INSIDE TRAIN MIGRANTS BOARDING TRAIN SECOND TRAIN ARRIVING FROM BUDAPEST DESTINED FOR VIENNA VIEW OF PEOPLE INSIDE, THROUGH TRAIN WINDOW VARIOUS OF HUNGARIAN POLICEMAN TALKING TO MIGRANTS MIGRANTS BOARDING TRAIN PEOPLE CRAMMED INTO SECOND TRAIN CHILD SITTING ON FLOOR TWO TRAINS WAITING (SOUNDBITE) (English) REFUGEE FROM SYRIA, OMAR, SAYING: "We are from Syria, we want to go to Germany." (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED REFUGEE FROM SYRIA, SAYING: "In Syria, to Turkey, seven days to Turkey and going to Greece and going to Macedonia, Macedonia to Serbia, Serbia three days, Serbia. After in Hungary. Now train is stopping. No problem, I don't know." (REPORTER'S QUESTION: "Where do you want to go?") "Germany, to Germany." EMPTY EXTRA TRAIN AT PLATFORM MIGRANTS AND OTHER PASSENGERS WALKING TO THIRD TRAIN VIEW THROUGH WINDOW OF GIRL WITH DOLL MIGRANT FAMILY RUNNING TO THIRD TRAIN PEOPLE GETTING ONTO THIRD TRAIN (SOUNDBITE) (English) TRAIN PASSENGER FROM AUSTRIA, JOHANNES, SAYING: "We have been in Budapest and I just got on a train and it was just full. And we don't even have one metre space and it was full. Now we're actually, three hours we were standing with no space. And now we're here, just in front of the border and now nothing happens. It's like, no police, no one who's going to control anything. Yeah, we don't know what to do, actually." FIRST TRAIN LEAVING STATION, AS OTHER TWO TRAINS WAIT
  • Embargoed: 15th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Hungary
  • Country: Hungary
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAEW7L142IVFSNDWL6916BBY418
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A train carrying hundreds of migrants left for Vienna on Monday (August 31) after being held for hours at Austria's border with Hungary amid a security clampdown on trafficking gangs and efforts to apply fraying European rules intended to manage the flow of refugees.
    Austrian Railways had cited "overcrowding" on the train and a police spokesman in Vienna said Austria wanted to check whether any of the migrants had already asked for asylum in Hungary. Those that had would have to stay on the Hungarian side. A second train from Budapest remained stuck at the border.
    In sweltering hot sunshine the refugees -- many of whom are fleeing wars in the Middle East -- sat in crowded train corridors or wandered along the platform awaiting announcements.
    Some said they had been travelling for days after fleeing the conflict in Syria.
    "In Syria, to Turkey, seven days to Turkey and going to Greece and going to Macedonia, Macedonia to Serbia, Serbia three days, Serbia. After in Hungary," said one man.
    With two packed trains waiting at the border, an extra train was laid on to ease the overcrowding.
    But one passenger said the situation was chaotic.
    "We have been in Budapest and I just got on a train and it was just full. And we don't even have one metre space and it was full. Now we're actually, three hours we were standing with no space. And now we're here, just in front of the border and now nothing happens. It's like, no police, no one who's going to control anything. Yeah, we don't know what to do, actually," said Johannes from Austria.
    Most of the tens of thousands of migrants entering Hungary from the Balkans this summer are heading to richer nations such as Germany and Austria. Hungarian authorities allowed the latest batch to board the westward bound trains after dozens protested late on Sunday about being stranded at the railway station.
    Their plight highlights the humanitarian and diplomatic challenges facing the European Union, which has eliminated border controls between 26 states of the "Schengen area" but requires new asylum seekers to apply in the first member country they enter -- in this case Hungary.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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