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Roundup: Chaos reigns at Budapest railway station as refugees denied passage

Xinhua, September 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

Budapest's Eastern (Keleti) Railway Station reopened after a Tuesday morning shut-down, but only documented refugees with valid visas are being allowed to board trains to Western Europe, according to a statement of the Hungarian State Railways (MAV).

Documents are also being checked before allowing people to purchase tickets.

The move comes after Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann indirectly criticized Hungary for allowing trainloads of refugees to leave Hungary on Monday, leading to an influx of migrants in Vienna on Monday night.

Meanwhile, refugees locked out of the Eastern Railway Station continued demonstrating into the evening of a scorching summer day, demanding to be allowed to travel to Germany, after the German authorities indirectly indicated that they were ready to allow in Syrian nationals fleeing civil war.

Hungarian Foreign Affairs State Secretary Levente Magyar rejected the criticism and met with Austria's charge d'affaires who was summoned on Tuesday.

Magyar said this had been the second case in 24 hours when Hungary had to respond to an allied country, as France's charge d'affaires was summoned on Monday after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius voiced a similar critique.

He charged Faymann with duplicity for saying that Hungary was making it too tough for refugees to enter the country and then stating that it was too lenient in letting them travel onwards without proper documentation.

Hungary would appreciate it if instead of criticism the rest of the European Union (EU) would appreciate the "superhuman efforts of the Hungarian authorities," in managing the wave of refugees.

Under EU rules, he said, Hungary is responsible for attempting to halt and register people who enter the country illegally. It is also responsible for checking documents should a person wish to leave Hungary, since registration is not authorization to keep traveling.

Hungary is doing everything it can to reduce illegal entry, he added, calling for European cooperation to find an effective solution.

Since January 156,000 refugees have entered Hungary, according to Interior Ministry State Secretary Karoly Kontrat, who was speaking in parliament on Tuesday.

Of them, over 140,000 requested asylum and 45,000 were Syrians, he added.

Janos Lazar, chief of the Prime Minister's Office, officially warned that Europe needed to prepare for the arrival of millions of migrants.

He called for EU-wide sustainable long-term measures given the situation in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Balkans.

Meanwhile a Kecskemet (85 km SE of Budapest) court ordered the formal arrest of a fifth suspect in the deaths of 71 refugees in a Hungarian-owned truck, who were found on a highway near Vienna, the court's media spokesman, Szabolcs Sarkozy, reported.

The suspect, who will be remanded in custody for at least 30 days, is 24 years old, and is a Bulgarian citizen, the same as three of the four men already arrested.

Since January proceedings have been launched against 862 people smugglers in Hungary. Endit