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Austria suspends trains as refugee crisis escalates
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RECORD numbers of refugees streamed through the Balkans into Hungary yesterday, forcing Austria to suspend cross-border train services as Europe remained bitterly divided over how to cope with the crisis.
Germany — itself under fire from eastern neighbors over its willingness to take in refugees — warned that an EU plan to distribute 160,000 new arrivals among member states was a mere “drop in the ocean.”
Hungarian police said 3,321 people had entered in just 24 hours, hurrying to cross before harsh new anti-migrant laws take effect, an imposing new fence is completed, and the weather worsens.
Across the border in Serbia, state television said a record 5,000 people had arrived at the frontier.
Further south, on Macedonia’s border with Greece, some 50 buses transporting around 2,500 migrants and three trains packed with 3,000 people were seen departing from the town of Gevgelija.
On Tuesday, the UN’s refugee agency warned that at least 42,000 refugees were expected to enter Hungary by next week.
Many have endured treacherous sea journeys across the Mediterranean — most fleeing war and poverty in Syria, Afghanistan or Pakistan and hoping to reach Germany.
Once inside Hungary, overstretched police have struggled to control and register the new arrivals who mostly board trains and buses bound for the border with Austria.
Hundreds have broken through Hungarian police lines in recent days near the flashpoint border village of Roszke after waiting for hours to get on buses.
Emergency measures allowing refugees to enter Austria after the arrival of 15,000 last weekend remained in place. But Austria’s train operator yesterday suspended services with Hungary because of “massive overcrowding,” calling on bus companies and volunteers to stop bringing refugees to stations.
Denmark’s trains, which had been suspended on Wednesday, were due to start running again, and police said they were letting refugees travel freely toward Sweden, another preferred destination.
However, a busy ferry crossing from Rodby, south of Copenhagen, remained closed to trains a day after 340 refugees arriving from Germany refused to disembark, demanding to continue to Sweden.
In an effort to control the crisis, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday unveiled a new plan for the bloc to share out 160,000 refugees to ease the burden on frontline states.
But Germany, which said it has already welcomed 450,000 migrants and refugees this year, wants the 28-nation bloc to go further.
Europe’s biggest economy wants compulsory long-term EU quotas with no limits on numbers, with Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel likening Juncker’s proposals to “a drop in the ocean.”
“The distribution of 160,000 refugees across Europe is a first step, if one wants to be polite,” he said.
But binding quotas are already facing fierce resistance from eastern members of the EU, with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico saying his country would not “bow down” to Berlin.
“We say no to mandatory quotas. I don’t want to wake up one day and have 50,000 people here about whom we know nothing,” Fico said.
The EU quota plans must be approved by a majority of EU states, and Berlin said it was open to a special refugee summit ahead of a scheduled summit on October 14.
Juncker’s proposals also include a possible revision of the EU’s Dublin Treaty, under which asylum claims must be processed by the first country that refugees arrive in.
Meanwhile, on the Greek island of Lesbos, another flashpoint, the boats keep arriving. “As soon as I put my feet down, I stopped feeling tired,” said Feras Tahan, a 34-year-old Syrian.
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