EUROPE-MIGRANTS/HUNGARY STATIONS Migrants set up camp in Budapest metro stations

Record ID: 145706

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/HUNGARY STATIONS Migrants set up camp in Budapest metro stations
  • Date: 30th July 2015
  • Summary: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (JULY 30, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF KELETI RAILWAY STATION MIGRANTS SITTING OUTSIDE STATION MIGRANT RESTING ON CARDBOARD OUTSIDE STATION BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (JULY 29, 2015) (REUTERS) MIGRANTS UNDERGROUND BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (JULY 30, 2015) (REUTERS) MIGRANTS COLLECTING THEIR BELONGINGS MIGRANTS PREPARING TO LEAVE AS POLICE WATCH (SOUNDBITE) (English) VOLUNT
  • Embargoed: 14th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Hungary
  • Country: Hungary
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA9OT7O70RVSDZNJAB26T6BE4SJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: QUALITY AS INCOMING
    Hundreds of migrants have been setting up camp in Budapest's metro stations as they continue their journey for a better life in western Europe.
    They are among thousands of migrants streaming through the Balkans, fleeing war, poverty and upheaval in the Middle East and Africa.
    Well over 100,000 are believed to have entered illegally into Hungary so far this year.
    Over 93,000 have applied for asylum in Hungary before slipping through the immigration net and heading west towards the more affluent countries of Europe.
    Many more are believed to have made the trip unnoticed.
    Many migrants arrive in Hungary via Serbia.
    One of the most crowded stations in the Hungarian capital on Wednesday (July 29) was Keleti station, where trains from Serbia arrive.
    Migrants are entering Serbia from southern neighbour Macedonia at a rate of over 1,000 people per day.
    According to local media, most of the migrants camped out underground near Keleti station were young men from Syria and Afghanistan, but also women with children.
    On Thursday (July 30), police were escorting migrants out of the underground corridors.
    Tamas Lederer, who is the leader of the Eastern Civilian Support Group helping the migrants on their journeys, said that migrants get stuck in Budapest on their way to designated camps.
    "The system in Hungary for moving the refugees from the border where they catch the refugees, they send them to their designated refugee camp through the public transportation, so they have free tickets valid for trains and buses. We are at the Keleti railway station now. People arrive here by the normal trains and they have to change here for another train to go to their camp. One of the problems is that although the train ticket is free for them, public transportation in Budapest is not. And most of the trains go from another train station so we volunteers raise money for their bus tickets to be able to reach the train station to arrive to the camp," he explained.
    What makes Hungary so attractive is that the country, unlike EU neighbours Croatia and Romania, is a member of the borderless Schengen zone.
    Azim from Afghanistan is one of the migrants who has been staying in the underground areas around the station.
    He said he and his friend were abandoned by the people smuggler they had paid to take them to Germany.
    "Like, from Afghanistan my friend gave like 12,000 American dollars to the smuggler to smuggle him from Afghanistan to Germany and when we got to Hungary that guy he switched off his phone and we were trying to call him that we are in Hungary right now and his phone was switched off like we didn't have other choices," said Azim.
    Afghan migrant Iza Tollah said he had been sleeping rough in various places in the Hungarian capital but settled for Keleti station.
    "Keleti station is not the place for people to live because that is the place where people are walking. The problem is the weather was too cold and it was raining outside, we didn't have any other choice, that's why we choose to live in the Keleti station," he said.
    Another Afghan migrant called Azim said the conditions at the station were not very good.
    "At Keleti station the women and the children are in a very bad situation, their condition is very bad, because there is no food or water for them and there are no toilets and there are police asking for their documents and that's a big issue in Hungary," he said.
    Many migrants are in a hurry to get to Hungary which says that a month from now it will seal its border with Serbia with a four-metre high, 175-km long barrier to keep the migrants out.
    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says the European Union's migration policy is broken and the influx of mainly-Muslim foreigners risks distorting its identity.
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