Migrants Crisis: Hungary Migrants Starts Walk to Border

Hundreds of migrants stuck at a Budapest railway station for days have set off on foot, saying they intend to walk to Austria.

Hungarian authorities are trying to contain thousands of people desperate to reach western Europe.

Meanwhile European Union states are struggling to agree a common strategy to deal with the crisis.

The Hungarian, Czech, Slovakian and Polish prime ministers have rejected quotas for EU nations.

In a statement the leaders rejected "any proposal leading to introduction of mandatory and permanent quota for solidarity measures".

The head of the UN refugee agency said EU nations must mobilise "full force" and accept up to 200,000 refugees.

 

The chaotic scenes in Hungary - a main transit country for those seeking to claim asylum in Germany and other countries in north and west Europe - have continued for another day:

• A large number - some estimate over a thousand - of migrants who had been waiting days at Budapest's Keleti station have left and plan to walk to Vienna, in the absence of trains, a journey of 240km (150 miles)

• There were clashes at Keleti station on Thursday afternoon after far-right extremists threw two firecrackers towards migrants, sparking an angry response
• A stand-off between police and passengers on a train held at Bicske station continues, as the people on board are refusing to go to a transit camp to be processed. Riot police have been seen entering the station, and police have formed a corridor to a waiting bus. A large group of migrants have escaped from the train and are walking along the train tracks
• Hundreds of people have broken out of a refugee camp at Roszke near the Serbian border and are being pursued by police; thousands more still inside are threatening to break out too

Live updates on the crisis

Under EU regulations, anyone wishing to seek asylum must do so in the first EU country they reach.

But many of those who have arrived in Hungary do not wish to be registered there because it is more likely to send migrants back, and has a relatively small population and economy.

They want to continue on to seek asylum in Germany and other richer countries.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned on Friday of "the end of Europe".

"Today we are talking about tens of thousands but next year we will be talking about millions and this has no end," Mr Orban said.

Source: BBC News