Refugees arrive at Hungary-Austria border

Hundreds of refugees have begun arriving at Hungary’s border crossing with Austria after spending days stranded at Budapest’s main railway terminus.
They will receive food before being registered and processed by authorities. About 4,000 refugees have arrived so far, police say, and the number is expected to reach 10,000 throughout Saturday.
The development came just hours after long lines of buses left Budapest packed with refugees, following an announcement by Austria that it had agreed with Germany to let them in.


Hungary’s government sent about 100 buses to pick up the thousands of refugees camped in front of the train station in Budapest and another 1,200 walking down the main highway to Vienna.
Austria said they would be granted entry regardless of European Union rules.
Aylan Kurdi’s father recalls moment he lost family
“Because of today’s emergency situation on the Hungarian border, Austria and Germany agree in this case to a continuation of the refugees’ journey into their countries,” Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said on his Facebook page.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Hungarian government cited safety concerns for the decision to deploy buses, after days of cancelled trains and confrontation with riot police refusing to let the refugees pass.
But it appeared to mark an admission that the government had lost control in the face of overwhelming numbers of refugees determined to reach western Europe, having fled war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
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.
On Friday the crowd that swelled to over 1,000 broke away from the Budapest railway terminus, trudging through the city over a bridge and out onto the main highway to Vienna, escorted by police struggling to keep the road open.
“The government has not commented on why they changed their mind over the issue yet,” Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Jamjoom said on Budapest’s decision to let refugees go to the Austrian border.
He said it seemed that the Hungarian prime minister, regardless his tough stance, took some of the criticism against his country over the refugee issue seriously.