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Hungary closed its main train station Tuesday in an attempt to block hundreds of refugees from continuing their migration further into Western Europe.
The move follows chaotic scenes at the Keleti Train Station station in Budapest Monday, when people were let onto the trains without visa checks, after they had been waiting and sleeping outside the station for weeks.
According to a government spokesperson, Hungarian officials are merely trying to enforce European Union law that requires all foreigners traveling within the Schengen zone – comprised of 26 European countries, including Hungary – to hold a valid passport and visa.
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The waiting refugees gathered outside the station after being forced out Tuesday morning chanting slogans such as “Freedom! Freedom!” demanding they be able to travel.
In many cases, they had already bought expensive tickets into Germany with set train departure times, but were still denied access to travel.
“I came here and they bought a ticket for three people to Munich It was €370.20 (US$417.00). My train was at 7am this morning and the police didn’t let me into the station, and after you see what happened,” said Rafir Kozma from Syria.
Others complained that the ticket salesperson had sold them expensive return journeys, only to be denied entry into the station on their departure day.
“Why have they sold us return tickets? We are refugees, we are one-way,” said Mohammed, who had travelled from Damascus, adding, “These people are thieves.”
The closure appeared to be motivated by other E.U. countries claiming to be overwhelmed by the influx of migrants, putting pressure on Hungary to slow the tides of people.
Thousands of refugees have been traveling through the Balkans over past weeks, after they arrived on Greece's islands via a dangerous crossing through the Mediterranean and ferried to the mainland by Greek officials.
The refugees have so far made their way west either by foot, bus or train from Greece, with many of them eying Germany as their final destination. So far they have encountered closed borders, violent border patrols, and been subjected to further human trafficking in their efforts to make it to western Europe by any means possible.
Most of the refugees are fleeing situations of poverty or violence in areas such as Syria and Afghanistan – ironically, areas where Europe has contributed to the ongoing conflicts.
Despite months of refugees arriving on the continent, European leaders have failed to develop a coordinated response to the issue, leaving each country to deal with it with their own means.
This has resulted in Macedonia declaring a state of emergency and sending the national guard to its border with Greece, Hungary building a barbed-wire fence along its border, and Austria reinforcing strict controls at its main border crossings – which normally means officials turn back to Hungary those without proper travel documents or who are not seeking asylum in Austria.
Truckers complained traffic was backed up for at least 6 kilometers (3.5 miles) Monday outside the Austrian border, due to the controls. Officials in Vienna said 3,650 migrants arrived Monday from Hungary via train, most of whom were continuing onto Germany.
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