| New York Times | - |
BUDAPEST
- The Keleti train station in Budapest, which has emerged as ground
zero in Europe's spiraling migration crisis, cut off service to migrants
on Tuesday as European countries remained bitterly divided and confused
over how to handle the ...
Migrants Stranded at Station in Budapest
Crowds of people waiting to board
trains to Austria and Germany early Tuesday at the Keleti train station
protested after the station shut down temporarily.
By REUTERS on Publish Date September 1, 2015.
Photo by Mauricio Lima for The New York Times.
Watch in Times Video »
BUDAPEST
— The Keleti train station in Budapest, which has emerged as ground
zero in Europe’s spiraling migration crisis, cut off service to migrants
on Tuesday as European countries remained bitterly divided and confused
over how to handle the thousands trekking northward.
As
migrants were greeted early Tuesday by an announcement that the station
was “shut down for departure and arrivals for an indefinite time” and
told to leave, thousands of others were pouring into stations at the
preferred destination for many of the migrants, Germany, and being
greeted with promises of accommodations and legalized status.
The
contrasting scenes in Budapest and Munich reflected a continent
polarized by how to respond to a wave of migrants trying to reach
wealthier countries in Europe.
Emphasizing the sense of confusion, Austria’s
interior minister, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, called on Germany to clarify
its stance on asylum rules. And the Austrian chancellor, Werner Faymann,
lashed out at Hungary for its seeming failure to register migrants
before they were sent on.
“That
they are simply getting on board in Budapest and they make sure they
will travel to the neighboring country — what sort of politics is that?”
he asked on Austrian television.
Hungary, in turn, expressed its anger by summoning the Austrian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry.
“It
is disappointing and incomprehensible that the leader of a neighboring
country should talk in this vein about an issue which is causing
Hungary, as well as Europe, immense difficulties amounting to a historic
challenge,” the minister of foreign affairs and trade, Peter Szijjarto,
told the Hungarian news agency MTI.
The
cold reception migrants received in Budapest was in marked contrast to
the welcome in Munich, where the police said on Tuesday that about 2,500
people had arrived on trains from Budapest, via Vienna, in the span of
24 hours. Hundreds more continued to arrive early Tuesday.
The
scenes of confusion and despair at Keleti and the acrimonious exchanges
underlined the challenges facing Europe as tens of thousands of
migrants, buffeted by civil war and conflict in the Middle East and
Syria, try to make the perilous journey. Once in Europe, they face a patchwork of policies across a 28-member bloc that is ill equipped to deal with the surge.
In
Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, under pressure from a
far-right anti-immigrant party with a sizable voice in Parliament, has
aired some of the most strident speech against immigrants on the
Continent, and it is building a fence on the Serbian border.
Adding
to the divisions, Janos Lazar, Mr. Orban’s chief of staff, on Tuesday
blamed the European Union, which includes Hungary as a member, for
stoking the migration crisis. He said that a leftist approach by the
bloc over the past 10 years had saddled it with a difficult crisis.
He
said that Hungary and the rest of Europe must prepare for millions of
people heading to the Continent, and that the unrest in Afghanistan,
Iraq and Syria had made it obvious that piecemeal measures were not
enough. He accused the bloc of failing to properly police its territory,
saying that it “has failed to manage the situation, and the problem is
the E.U. itself, which is incapable of protecting its own borders.”
Early
in the day, at the Keleti station in Budapest, rows of riot police
officers wearing red caps tried to contain the migrants, and the station
was shut down under the strain of the influx of migrants trying to
travel to Germany from Hungary. The migrants erupted in protest after
station officials stopped allowing them to board trains, and they were
instead funneled into its courtyard, which had been transformed into a
makeshift camp.
Traveling in Europe’s River of Migrants
Thousands of migrants and refugees are desperately pushing
their way through the Balkans, trying to reach Hungary before it seals
its border.
The
migrants, who had been gathered since 5 a.m. in hopes of boarding a
train, chanted: “Go free! Go free! Go free!” Later, they shouted,
“Merkel! Merkel!” referring to Angela Merkel, the German chancellor,
whose country is expected to receive 800,000 asylum seekers this year.
Train
service at Keleti was restored shortly after 10 a.m., but no migrants
were being allowed back into the station. By late afternoon, the large
angry crowds of migrants had shrunk but were still chanting and
shouting, as police officers guarded all entrances.
It
was a different story in Munich, where streets around the central train
station were blocked off to allow the authorities to organize the
migrants and bring them to the city’s processing centers, where they
were to be registered and begin the process of applying for asylum.
Matching
the flood of people was a flow of donations of drinks, food and baby
necessities. “There is no end to the willingness of people to help —
Great!” the police said on Twitter.
In
a post on Twitter from its federal office for migrant affairs last
week, Germany indicated that it was easing its rules, which call for
migrants to seek asylum in the European Union country where they first
arrive or are registered, for those coming from Syria.
Although
the language made clear that Germany was not changing its overall
policy, it was reported as a general easing of the rules, stirring hope
among the migrants and confusing European partners.
The
German action appeared to cast doubt on whether the Dublin Regulation,
which establishes the criteria for handling asylum seekers, was still in
force.
“There
were even rumors that Germany is sending trains to Budapest to pick up
refugees,” Reuters quoted Ms. Mikl-Leitner as saying before a regular
cabinet meeting in Vienna. “It is all the more important that Germany
informs refugees in Hungary that Dublin has not been suspended.”
Ms.
Mikl-Leitner was speaking after a day of ambiguity about whether
migrants who had reached Hungary, part of the open-border Schengen zone,
could head west to Austria and on to Germany.
Interactive Graphic
Which Countries Are Under the Most Strain in the European Migration Crisis?
European Union officials struggle to cope with the growing crisis.
Many
migrants have been apparently avoiding registering in Hungary or
Austria in hopes of finding refuge in Germany, even as migrant advocates
say that European Union countries appear to be selectively applying the
Dublin rules, in some cases failing to register or fingerprint migrants
to avoid having to take responsibility.
Ms.
Merkel has insisted that her country continues to apply the Dublin
rules, and a spokesman for the Interior Ministry reiterated that point
on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
In
Hungary, the authorities said in a statement that the Budapest police
chief had heightened controls in the capital for the next seven days,
with a focus on districts with large migrant populations. The police
said they would intensify checks of documents, as well as search
clothing and vehicles.
Karoly
Papp, the national police chief, said that the flow of migrants at the
border was continuing, and that 500 people had been detained for illegal
crossings from Serbia from midnight Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday. Zsuzsanna
Vegh, head of the immigration office, said 2,000 asylum requests had
been registered overnight, bringing the total to over 44,000. Most of
those came from people claiming to be Syrians, she said.
Tamas
Lederer, a volunteer who is helping to coordinate the response at
Keleti, said he had been told that as of Tuesday, only those with visas
from countries in the Schengen zone would be allowed to board the
trains.
He
said that migrants and asylum seekers with identity cards and passports
from places like Syria had been able to travel on Monday, but that the
authorities had toughened their stance.
In
the last five days, the number of migrants trying to leave from the
Budapest station has grown to 2,000 a day from about 800, he said.
The
increase in train travelers may be related to a crackdown in the region
on human traffickers following the discovery of the bodies of 71
migrants in Austria on Thursday who were believed to have smothered in
the summer heat after being packed into a truck by smugglers for the
journey from Hungary.
On
Tuesday, investigators said they had found about a dozen Syrian travel
documents in the truck and were checking to see if they were genuine.
Authorities
said a sixth suspect in the investigation had been arrested in
Bulgaria. The suspect was among those sought by international arrest
warrants issued by Austria, said Verena Strnad, spokeswoman for state
prosecutors in the eastern state of Burgenland. An additional suspect
sought by international warrant has been detained in Hungary, she said.
ABurgenland
police spokesman, Gerhard Pangl, said 40 autopsies had been completed,
but declined to give further details. The authorities plan a news
conference on Friday to announce the results of their inquiry so far, he
said.
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