EUROPE-MIGRANTS/HUNGARY BUSES MORE Buses take migrants at train station to Austria; Hungarian crackdown fizzles
Record ID:
141802
EUROPE-MIGRANTS/HUNGARY BUSES MORE Buses take migrants at train station to Austria; Hungarian crackdown fizzles
- Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/HUNGARY BUSES MORE Buses take migrants at train station to Austria; Hungarian crackdown fizzles
- Date: 5th September 2015
- Summary: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (SEPTEMBER 5, 2015) (REUTERS) KELETI TRAIN STATION VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS SLEEPING ON FLOOR AT TRAIN STATION AFGHAN SPEAKING TO MIGRANTS THROUGH LOUDSPEAKER MAN CARRYING GIRL WALKING OFF ANOTHER MAN CARRYING GIRL GOING UP STEPS / GIVING THUMBS UP POLICEWOMAN ON STREET WHERE BUSES SET TO CARRY MIGRANTS OUT OF HUNGARY ARE LOCATED VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS BOARDING BUSES BUS ARRIVING MIGRANT BEING HELPED AND POINTED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION / WOMEN WITH CHILDREN WALKING TOWARDS BUS / ONE WOMAN ASKED HOW SHE FEELS, RESPONDS BY SAYING: "HAPPY" (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MIGRANT ON BOARD BUS TRAVELLING TO AUSTRIA, SAYING: "The situation has been very bad while we were detained at the train station, we were at the camp for three days with no food or water ever since entering Hungary. We are now supposed to be taken to the Austrian border, we heard from those who are already there that there is no food or water. They say they are letting us go to Austria for humanitarian purposes but we don't know what's happening. Maybe they want to take us to a camp that is at the earliest point in Hungary near the Serbian border and no one knows where they're going." MAN WITH CHILD IN BUS PEOPLE IN BUS BUS ON STREET WOMAN WITH CHILD FINDING SEAT AND SITTING IN BUS YOUNG MEN SAYING "AUSTRIA" "AUSTRIA" "AUSTRIA" IN ARABIC POLICE VEHICLES ON STREET VARIOUS OF BUS CONVOY TRAVELLING IN STREET
- Embargoed: 20th September 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Hungary
- Country: Hungary
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVAC7JDQOWA2MOHZVW2L4PJCJSGW
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Budapest's Keleti railway terminus, for days a campsite of migrants barred from taking trains west to Austria and Germany, rapidly emptied in the early hours of Saturday (September 5) as smiling families boarded a huge queue of buses, leaving behind them scattered shoes, clothes and mattresses.
The government said it would deliver around 100 buses to pick up the migrants in Budapest and another 1,200 striding down the main highway to Vienna.
Austria said they would be granted entry, regardless of European Union rules.
The Hungarian government cited safety concerns for the decision to bus the migrants out, after days of cancelled trains and confrontation with riot police refusing to let them pass.
But it appeared to mark an admission that the government had lost control in the face of overwhelming numbers determined to reach western Europe having fled war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
While most were visibly happy at an end to the impasse, some were sceptical of the government's intentions.
"The situation has been very bad while we were detained at the train station, we were at the camp for three days with no food or water ever since entering Hungary. We are now supposed to be taken to the Austrian border, we heard from those who are already there that there is no food or water. They say they are letting us go to Austria for humanitarian purposes but we don't know what's happening. Maybe they want to take us to a camp that is at the earliest point in Hungary near the Serbian border and no one knows where they're going," said one migrant on board a bus.
Hundreds broke out of an overcrowded camp on the border with Serbia on Friday; others escaped a stranded train, sprinting away from riot police down railway tracks, while more still took to the highway by foot.
Austria's Red Cross said it expected between 800 to 1,500 people to arrive in its refugee reception center of Nickelsdorf at the Hungarian border overnight.
For days, Hungary has cancelled all trains going west to Austria and Germany, saying it is obliged under EU rules to register all asylum seekers, who should remain there until their requests are processed.
Many have refused, determined to get to the richer and more generous countries of northern and western Europe, mainly Germany. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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