Photo: Asylum seeker protests continue for the second day outside the Keleti railway station in Budapest. (AFP: Attila Kisbenedek)
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Tensions in Hungary between asylum seekers and police have remained high for the second day as hundreds of mainly young men faced off against police blocking their path into Budapest's main international train station.
As the number of asylum seekers prevented from taking trains to Austria and Germany swelled to over 2,000 at the Keleti station, according to volunteers, crowds chanted "No police! No police!" and "Germany! Germany!"
Late Wednesday, the protesters, angry at reports of police removing asylum seekers from the station to registration centres for fingerprinting, ran up to a police line and began shouting, some throwing plastic bottles.
It is impossible that people in these numbers, tens of thousands of people, keep on going to the heart of Europe without any kind of discipline.
Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs
Traffic was blocked for around 15 minutes.
The officers were quickly reinforced by riot police who donned helmets and pushed the protesters back to stop them blocking the road.
No one appeared to have been hurt.
The standoff was the latest and largest in a number of tense encounters throughout Wednesday that followed Hungary's decision a day earlier to prevent asylum seekers getting on trains.
On Monday, several thousand asylum seekers had crammed onto trains bound for Austria and Germany.
The government explained the U-turn by saying it was applying EU law after confusion caused by an easing of Germany's asylum regulations.
Hungary defends treatment of asylum seekers
Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs defended his country's treatment of the asylum seekers.
"There is only one way to resolve this and this is by law, and re-establishing law and order," he told ABC's The World program.
"Not only at the railway station, but also at the borders of the European Union.
"These people we are facing and seeing at the railway station shouldn't be there.
Video: Hungarian government spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs discusses the situation in Budapest. (The World)
"We have 2-to-3,000 illegal migrants arriving to Hungary daily, and obviously they have one thing in mind — to reach Western Europe."
There were outbreaks of fighting between asylum seekers on Wednesday, while a group of far-right skinheads arrived to taunt the crowds but ran off after one received a blow to the head.
Earlier, tempers rose when the police suddenly moved to clear a pathway in the 'transit zone', a makeshift underground refugee camp where thousands of asylum seekers were sitting or lying on the ground on blankets in cramped conditions, looked after only by Hungarian volunteers.
"My friends got on a train on Monday? Why the hell don't they let me go too, all of us?" said Ohlit, a furious 41-year-old Syrian protestor.
As well as the crowds at Keleti, several hundred have been camping out at another station, Nyugati, and in nearby John Paul II square.
Early Wednesday, police closed down part of a suburban train station in Budapest, and surrounded 100 asylum seekers travelling from the southern border who refused to board a connecting train to a refugee camp in Debrecen.
Chanting, "Germany! Germany!" and "Freedom!" the group held a sit-down protest.
Mr Kovacs said Hungary was struggling with the sheer number of people arriving.
"They have no identification ... they don't comply with the rules and don't go to the shelters we are providing them ... they want to be in Europe as soon as possible," he said.
"These people aren't coming through the official border crossing points in any country.
"It is impossible that people in these numbers, tens of thousands of people, keep on going to the heart of Europe without any kind of discipline."
Hungary joins Italy and Greece at the frontlines
Hungary has in recent months joined Italy and Greece as a "frontline" state in Europe's migrant crisis, with 50,000 people trekking up the western Balkans and entering the country in August alone.
The government of right-wing prime minister Viktor Orban — who was due for talks in Brussels on Thursday has responded by erecting a controversial razor-wire barrier along its 175-kilometre border with Serbia.
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See images from Europe as it faces what International Organisation for Migration figures reveal is the biggest migrant crisis for the continent since World War II.
In addition, it is building a four-metre-high fence and on Thursday parliament was due to begin debating a series of new laws to deal with the influx, including greater police powers and using the army at the border.
However Hungary's razor-wire barrier is proving ineffective in keeping out the tens of thousands of people trekking up from Greece through the western Balkans, with Hungarian authorities saying that 2,284 crossed on Tuesday including 353 children.
"Normal people, abnormal people, educated, uneducated, doctors, engineers, any people, we're staying here. Until we go by train to Germany," said Mohamed, a Syrian protesting at the station.
Bilal, a fellow Syrian from the divided city of Aleppo, said there was an urgency to get into Europe.
"We fear that one day everything will change, that even Germany will close the border when it has had enough. So we must make our journey extremely fast," he said on Tuesday near Serbia's border with Hungary.
AFP
From other news sites:
- Fox News: Migrants protest in Budapest as Hungary blocks westbound travel for second day
- Los Angeles Times: Chaos at Hungarian train station as migrant crisis in Europe deepens
- Reuters: Migrant chaos at Budapest train station; Germany says EU rules still hold
- SBS: Hundreds of asylum seekers stranded at Hungary station
- CNN: Migrants protest at Hungary train station as entry is barred
