Desperate migrants break down in tears as Austria withdraws emergency measures and brings back border controls after 12,000 refugees enter the country over weekend
- Austria suspended border checks after pictures emerged of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi lying dead on Turkish beach
- Decision also made as thousands of frustrated migrants headed from Budapest in Hungary towards Austria on foot
- German police said a record 14,000 people arrived from Austria over the weekend, the majority fleeing Syrian war
- Germany expects to receive some 800,000 refugees this year and has urged other EU members to open their doors
Desperate
migrants attempting to reach Europe broke down in tears when Austria
announced it is bringing back border controls after emergency measures
allowed 12,000 thousand to enter the country from Hungary over the
weekend.
The
news comes as migrants were spotted waving makeshift signs pleading for
help after Hungarian police stopped a train heading from Budapest to
the Austrian border in Bicske.
Austrian
Chancellor Werner Faymann said last night that the country will end the
emergency measures which allowed migrants stranded in Hungary into
Austria since Saturday.
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Migrants wait for buses in a makeshift
camp in the village of Roszke, Hungary, today, after Austria announced
it was withdrawing its emergency measures which allowed 12,000 to enter
the country
A migrant wrapped in a sleeping bag stands in a makeshift camp at a collection point in the village of Roszke
Hundreds of migrants were forced to set up a temporary home in the makeshift camp in the Hungarian village of Roszke
Austria
suspended its random border checks after photographs of a Syrian
toddler lying dead on a Turkish beach showed Europeans the horror faced
by those desperate enough to travel illegally into the heart of Europe.
Other
incidents, including one in which 71 people suffocated in the back of a
truck abandoned on an Austrian highway en route from Hungary, prompted
Vienna to agree with Germany to waive rules requiring refugees to
register an asylum claim in the first EU country they reach.
The decision was reached as thousands of frustrated migrants headed from Budapest towards Austria on foot.
But Mr
Faymann announced last night that the decision is now being revised
following 'intensive talks' with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a
telephone call with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who had been
bitterly opposed to the waiver.
Mr
Faymann said: 'We have always said this is an emergency situation in
which we must act quickly and humanely. We have helped more than 12,000
people in an acute situation.
'Now we have to move step by step away from emergency measures towards normality in conformity with the law and dignity.'
A Syrian refugee child cries as she is
squeezed by other refugees at Geece's border with Macedonia near the
village of Idomeni this morning
A Syrian refugee father carries his
child as he and thousands of other refugees and migrants wait to cross
at Geece's border wit
Meanwhile,
German police said a record 14,000 people arrived from Austria over
the weekend by late afternoon on Sunday, the majority of them fleeing
the civil war in Syria, with some 3,000 more expected to arrive last
night.
Hungary
sent 100 buses to the border on Saturday night after Austria agreed to
the emergency measures, to the relief of thousands of migrants and
refugees who found themselves stranded in Budapest after travelling
through the Balkans and Greece.
Others set off from a station to make the 110-mile journey on foot.
Germany has said it expects to receive 800,000 refugees this year and has urged other EU members to open their doors.
It
decided to free up an additional €3billion for federal states and
municipalities to help cope with the influx, a joint statement by the
ruling coalition said.
Yesterday,
at the train station in Munich, a few dozen well-wishers turned up to
cheer the newly arrived migrants, many of whom spoke of weeks of arduous
travel by land and sea.
The
president of the Upper Bavarian government, Christoph Hillenbrand, said
he expected 13,000 migrants to reach the city on Sunday, up from a
previous estimate of 11,000, following 6,800 arrivals on Saturday.
Mr Hillenbrand said that 11,000 could arrive today and warned Munich is already running out of capacity.
Chaos: A police officer hits a man
with a baton as he tries to maintain order while migrants wait for
trains at a camp near Gevgelija, Macedonia
Police try to stop migrants crawling under a fence to board a train at a station near Gevgelija, Macedonia
Migrants walk through a temporary camp
near Gevgelija, Macedonia, this morning. Several thousand migrants in
Macedonia boarded trains on Sunday to travel north after spending a
night in a provisional camp
Authorities
there were using a disused car showroom and a railway logistics centre
as makeshift camps, and were adding a further 1,000 beds to 2,300
already set up at the city's international trade fair ground. About
4,000 people were sent to other German states.
'It's getting tight,' Hillenbrand told reporters at the train station.
Merkel's
decision to allow the influx has caused a rift in her conservative
bloc, with her Bavarian allies saying she had pushed ahead without
consulting the federal state administrations dealing with the problem on
the ground.
The political rift is greater across Europe, with Hungary's Orban accusing Berlin of encouraging the influx.
'As
long as Austria and Germany don't say clearly that they won't take in
any more migrants, several million new immigrants will come to Europe,'
he told Austrian broadcaster ORF.
Orban
has used the crisis to claim he is defending Europe's prosperity,
identity and 'Christian values' against a tide of mainly Muslim
migrants.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen accused Germany of looking to lower wages and hire 'slaves'.
Hungary,
the main entry point for migrants into Europe's borderless Schengen
zone, plans to seal its southern frontier with a new, high fence by
September 15.
After Hungarian police stopped a train heading to the Austrian border migrants help up homemade placards
The train was en route to Austria when the country announced it was bringing back border controls
Austria suspended its random border
checks after photographs of a Syrian toddler lying dead on a Turkish
beach showed the horror faced by those desperate enough to travel
illegally into the heart of Europe
Hungarian police stop a train heading from Budapest to the Austrian border in Bicske, Hungary
Desperate migrants wave makeshift signs pleading for help as Austria announced it is shutting its borders
The United States came under pressure to do more to help.
David
Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee and a former
British foreign secretary, called on Washington to bring out 'the kind
of leadership America has shown on these kind of issues' in the past.
In
Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a call by opposition
leader Isaac Herzog to give refuge to Syrian refugees, saying the
country was too small to take them in.
Gulf
states Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates have come under criticism for officially taking in zero
refugees.
Some EU states say the focus should be on tackling the violence in the Middle East that has caused so many to flee.
Warm welcome: Supporters hold posters
and balloons for a group of refugees arriving at a former army barracks,
now serving as emergency shelter for migrants, in Berlin, Germany. Some
350 migrants arrived at the shelter after travelling via Hungary and
Austria to Germany
A migrant girl smiles as she looks out
of the window of a train bound for Munich via Vienna at the railway
station in Hegyeshalom, Hungary
British
Prime Minister David Cameron wants to hold a vote in parliament in
early October to allow it to join air strikes by a US-led coalition on
Islamic State in Syria, London's Sunday Times said.
Le Monde reported that France was also considering joining.
Meanwhile,
former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell urged Mr
Cameron to consider sending UK troops to create 'safe havens' for
refugees in Syria.
Speaking
on Radio 4's Today Programme this morning, he said: 'We need a serious
effort to protect the millions of people in what is now a second world
country.
'We
need to be involved in putting troops on the ground. This is a
humanitarian effort. It's important for the UN to help. We have a
responsibility to protect these people.'
In
Budapest's Keleti station, migrants and refugees followed handwritten
signs in Arabic directing them to trains to Hegyeshalom on the Austrian
border, and volunteers handed out food and clothing.
On
the frontier, long lines of people, many wrapped in blankets or
sleeping bags and carrying sleeping children, got off buses on the
Hungarian side and walked across into Austria.
'We're happy. We'll go to Germany,' said a Syrian who gave his name as Mohammed.
But on Hungary's border with Serbia, there were reports that people had spent the night in the rain without food or shelter.
'While
Europe rejoiced in happy images from Austria and Germany yesterday,
refugees crossing into Hungary right now see a very different picture –
riot police and a cold hard ground to sleep on,' Amnesty International
researcher Barbora Cernusakova said in a statement.
A migrant woman holding a baby is
squeezed as they try to board a bus following their arrival onboard the
Eleftherios Venizelos passenger ship at the port of Piraeus, near Athens
A migrant woman holding a baby waits
to board a bus following their arrival onboard a passenger ship at the
port of Piraeus, near Athens
The numbers in Europe are small compared to the almost four million refugees in Syria's neighbours Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.
Pope Francis has called for every European church parish and religious community to take in one migrant family each.
But
a poll in the French newspaper Aujourd'hui en France showed 55 per cent
of French people opposed to softening rules on granting refugee status.
European
leaders are due to expand their list of 'safe' countries to which
migrants looking for a better life but not in fear of life and limb can
be returned.
Meanwhile,
the flow of people risking the dangerous journey on flimsy boats across
the Mediterranean shows no sign of abating as they flee the
four-year-old civil war in Syria which has killed 250,000 civilians.
Migrants cling to a truck at the refugee camp in Calais where thousands of people are trying to reach Britain
Migrants at the 'The New Jungle' refugee camp in Calais where thousands congregate before launching attempts to reach Britain
Others are escaping wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa.
On
the Greek island of Lesbos 500 Afghans protesting at lengthy
identification procedures scuffled with police over the weekend.
A
ferry took 1,744 migrants and refugees to Athens from Lesbos on Sunday
and another one with 2,500 on board was expected later in the day, the
coast guard said.
A record 50,000 people arrived on Greek shores in July alone and were ferried from islands unable to cope to the mainland.
There a government in financial crisis is keen to dispatch them into Macedonia from where they enter Serbia and then Hungary.
More than 2,000 refugees have died at sea in the Mediterranean so far this year.
The Cypriot coast guard picked up 114 Syrian refugees who were adrift in a fishing boat on Sunday.
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