Migrants rest outside a Budapest train station after being prevented from heading to Germany. Photo / AP
Migrants rest outside a Budapest train station after being prevented from heading to Germany. Photo / AP
Thousands stranded after hardline authorities stop them boarding trains to Germany.
Thousands of refugees remain stranded at Budapest's main international railway station, with Hungarian authorities - sticking to European Union rules - preventing them from moving on to Germany and other countries to the west.
International reports suggest as many as 3000 refugees are at the Keleti station in the Hungarian capital, many sleeping outside the main entrance guarded by police, who said citizen patrols were helping them to keep order.
Volunteer groups accustomed to providing food, clothing and medical assistance to a few hundred refugees at a time struggled with the large number of people staying in every corner of the station's sunken plaza.
Around the outside of the building Hungarian police were forming a barricade, not allowing anyone through. So the refugees began chanting things like 'we want Germany'."
She said the people appear tired and hungry and the chanting was still relatively peaceful.
"But given the volume of people, they will get more restless if they can't leave. It could easily turn violent."
Today I went to the main train station in Budapest. So many refugees. Barred from entering further. No place to go.
Ms Duckor-Jones said there were also a lot of bystanders at the station, many of whom were not doing anything to help the refugees.
"I bought food for three families and emptied my wallet. I didn't see anyone else doing that."
She said Germany and Austria had so far been generous but were now under pressure and not able to help everyone.
"I think New Zealand needs to take a stand and show the world what real Kiwis are like, and open the quota. We have the resources and space and it isn't hard to help them. I fed three families on my budget...so can everyone else."
Some of the refugees had sleeping bags, tents and blankets, Ms Duckor-Jones said, but nothing else.
Photo / Sophia Duckor-Jones
"One family started to cry when they were handed food. They spoke limited English but the father said they came from Syria and risked their lives before adding 'For what? To live in the train station?'."
She said from talking with other reporters at the scene, she understands most of the refugees had come by train. "So the trains were also over-crowded with many having to stand for the majority of the trip".
Ms Duckor-Jones said the general feeling in Hungary about the growing refugee crisis was one of shock and sadness. "People feel helpless and hopeless."
More than 150,000 refugees and migrants have reached Hungary this year, most coming through the southern border with Serbia. Many apply for asylum, with others trying to leave for richer EU countries.
More than 3000 people had boarded trains for Vienna on Tuesday, when Hungarian authorities allowed people staying in refugee camps to leave Budapest, despite many not having EU visas.
But this changed on Tuesday night (NZT), and hundreds of refugees protested in front of a line of police guarding the station's main entrance.
Photo / Sophia Duckor-Jones
They chanted, "Merkel, Merkel, Merkel," in tribute to the German Chancellor who has told her EU colleagues a fair system of sharing out refugees is the only answer to the crisis.
Some of the mostly Syrian refugees outside the station showed tickets they had bought for travel yesterday and said they were desperate to continue their attempt to reach safety elsewhere in Europe.
Brahim, a 35-year-old petroleum engineer from the Syrian city of Al-Hasakah, thought he was going to die when the small boat he was in ran out of fuel off the Greek coast.
"There is no captain on board, they just choose one of the people and say 'you', and that person gets a cell-phone so we called the Greek authorities, who saved us after five hours."
Hungary's Government has taken a hard line against refugees and migrants, but some citizens disagree.
Krisztina, a 27-year-old librarian from Budapest, said: "We cannot tell people to stay where they are or return to their countries when it is impossible. That is not a Christian way of coping with this problem."
He's got a ticket but no ride
Bassel Shekhany, a 26-year-old medical student from Damascus in Syria, was left holding a ticket to Munich for two people, for which he had paid about $220.
"They pushed everybody out of the station. All the people were allowed to buy tickets yesterday, so why did they reject us today?"
Shekhany, who decided to leave Damascus three months ago after the army locked him up for 16 days, said he had run out of money.
He managed to avoid police as he walked across the border into Hungary. Hungarian police are supposed to take refugee fingerprints to stop them from claiming asylum elsewhere.
Photo / Sophia Duckor-Jones
Shekhany said some Syrians had been given a paper allowing them 24 hours to leave the country instead.
