Refugees stuck in Budapest as police closes train station
Refugees trying to make their way to Western Europe are stuck in Hungary after authorities closed down Budapest's main station. The station has since been reopened, but migrants are not allowed to enter.
Hungary closes Budapest train station
Refugees are stranded in Budapest after Hungary closed down its main train station from which scores of people intended to travel on to Western Europe. On Monday, police allowed them free passage, thus overturning the policy of preventing refugees from boarding trains unless they had a valid visa for Europe's border-free Schengen zone. Thousands left the country for Germany and Austria.
Kicked out of the station
Hundreds of refugees are stuck in Budapest. As police - some of them riot officers - started moving people out of the station, some migrants started to shout. "Germany! Germany!" the crowd of young men chanted outside the station. "We want to leave!" They also cried out for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Police is now blocking the station and only allowing those with valid visas to enter.
Banned from traveling despite valid tickets
Several refugees said they spent hundreds of euros on train tickets as police reportedly told them they were free to go. Hassan, a 47-year-old from Syria, said he and two friends bought tickets to Germany, but were not allowed to leave now. "They took 125 euros [$140] for each ticket to Munich or Berlin, then they stopped and forced us from [the] station," he said.
Hoping to make it to Germany and Austria
Those who managed to catch the last departing train from Budapest late on Monday arrived in Austria's capital Vienna in the early morning hours of September 1. More than 3,600 migrants reached Vienna by train on August 31. Police looked on as they boarded trains to other Austrian cities and southern Germany.
Exhausted, but finally on a train
Lots of young men, but also large numbers of families with small, exhausted children are among those who boarded the trains to Germany and Austria. About 50,000 migrants entered Hungary in August, mostly from hotspots such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Syrian refugees allowed to stay?
Trainloads of refugees made it to Austria's city of Salzburg and Germany's Munich where police handed out water bottles to migrants waiting to get registered. According to European Union law, refugees need to apply for asylum in the country they first set foot in. But German authorities have advised officials not to send Syrians back to the first European Union country where they arrived.
Refugees welcome!
Upon arrival in Austria and Germany, refugees were handed water and snacks. A refugee child arriving in Munich smiles as he's handed a plush toy.