Upset migrants chanted “Freedom! Freedom!” and demanded to use their train tickets on Tuesday after Hungary temporarily suspended all rail traffic from its main terminal in Budapest and cleared the station of hundreds of migrants
trying to board trains for Austria and Germany.
Chaos enveloped Budapest’s Keleti train station, where thousands of migrants have left by rail in the last few days to those two wealthy EU countries, their chosen destinations in their flight from turmoil in the Mideast and Asia. Rail tickets have become especially popular after 71 migrants apparently suffocated last week in a Hungarian truck that was found abandoned in Austria.
European nations this year have been overwhelmed by a torrent of migrants fleeing violence and poverty, with over 332,000 arriving so far, and have disagreed strongly on how to handle the crush. Germany has taken on far more migrants than others in the 28-nation bloc, while the front-line border nations of Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary have faced police clashes with migrants, scuffles between migrants and even deaths at sea as thousands daily cross the Mediterranean in unseaworthy smugglers’ boats.
Scuffles broke out Tuesday morning in Budapest as hundreds of migrants pushed toward the metal gates where a train was to leave for Vienna and Munich and were blocked by police.
Authorities announced over station loudspeakers that all trains would be stopped from leaving for an indefinite period. Migrants’ papers were checked, and those with
train tickets but no EU visas were ushered out of the cavernous station.
Outside, hundreds
who had spent heavily on the tickets angrily chanted “Germany!” and UN!”
Mohammed, a 24-year-old economist from the Syrian city of Aleppo, said the chaos was the worst he has seen since leaving Syria. He had bought a ticket to Munich for 200 euros ($225) after Hungarian police told him Monday night they would be allowed to leave. But despite showing a valid Syrian passport on Tuesday to police guarding the train platform, he was told he could not get on it because he did not have a visa for Germany.
