My Blog Space News: Hungarian police and refugees in standoff after train returns to camp

Dan Nolan in Bicske, Emma Graham-Harrison in Budapest and agencies

Friday 4 September 2015

Hundreds refuse to leave train at Bicske station, with many declining food and water and vowing to go on hunger strike if they are not taken to Germany

Young refugees at Budapest railway terminus, Thursday. Their families were mainly hoping to go on to Germany. Photograph: Beata Zawrzel/Demotix/Corbis
Hundreds of people remained on a train in the Hungarian town of Bicske on Thursday night following a botched attempt by authorities to move on some of the thousands gathered in Budapest’s main railway station.
The Hungarian authorities earlier appeared to trick hundreds of people into taking a train to a refugee camp outside Budapest in an attempt to end a two-day standoff at the station where thousands have been trying to get to western Europe.
There was confusion at Keleti rail terminus in the morning when departures were initially cancelled and then passengers piled on to a newly arrived train they hoped would take them to Austria or Germany.
Instead, the train stopped in the town of Bicske, outside the capital, where riot police were waiting to take the refugees to an overcrowded facility that many had left a few days earlier in the hope of finding sanctuary in Germany.

Hungarian police order refugees off train heading to Austrian border

Train was first to leave Budapest since police blockade ended amid fears among migrants and refugees that they will be taken to Bicske camp
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There were chaotic scenes at the station when one man pulled his wife and child on to the tracks, begging police not to force them to go to the camp. “We won’t move from here,” he shouted repeatedly. The man was later handcuffed and taken away by officers.
A large group of people was surrounded in a hot and cramped underpass leading out of the station, chanting “no camp, no camp”. Other passengers clashed with police and forced their way back on to the train to begin a standoff in the sweltering heat. Police brought water but many of the migrants refused to take the bottles, vowing to go on hunger strike.
Later, volunteers tried to offer them food but people refused to eat. “We don’t need food and water. Just let us go to Germany,” one said from an open train window.
Hungarian police declared the area an “operation zone” and removed reporters from the station. Later, reporters were allowed to gather on a platform. About 100 people were on the opposite platform and about 50 riot police blocked the route across the tracks.
The travellers on the train resorted to holding signs up against the train windows, which said “no camp for children” and “save our souls, we are children”.
Police told the right-wing HirTV channel that they were waiting for the press to leave before taking the migrants to the camp at Bicske. The refugees chanted “media, media, don’t leave!” and held anti-Hungarian government slogans against the train windows. One of them said: “It is better to die in Syria than in Hungary.”
About 500 people remained on the train on Thursday night, after just 30 agreed to go to the camp to be registered.
Euronews reported that a second train had stopped near the north-western town of Győr in Hungary and several dozen people had been escorted off by police.

Hungarian police stop a train with refugees in Bicske. Photograph: Björn Kietzmann/Demotix/Corbis
Two miles from the train in Bicske, a staff member at the refugee camp disclosed that they had been prepared for the manoeuvre, saying she had been told to get to work early in expectation of a sudden influx of migrants.
Outside the camp gates, a young Hungarian mother of three children, from Tatabanya, said she had diverted her trip after hearing the news on the radio. “I had been planning to go to Keleti station to drop off some clothes,” she said, “but then I heard that the migrants were being taken here [and] decided to make a detour.” Conditions at the camp, where many refugees are sleeping in tents, are said to be among the worst in Hungary.
“Why does Hungary keep us here when they don’t have the money to look after us,” asked a 30-year-old Iranian man. “Here we get 6,000 forints a week to live from, we never get an evening meal, and often we don’t have water. I have been here for five months, and I have never had any medical help for this,” he said, knocking on his prosthetic leg.
In Budapest, police had hoped to entice many more of the estimated 3,000 people camping outside Keleti to leave on Thursday. Conditions at the terminal have become increasingly desperate despite the presence of volunteers distributing water, food, medicine and disinfectants.
The Associated Press reported seeing a toddler beside his sleeping parents crawling on to the pavement to eat breadcrumbs. Nearby, an unattended child rummaged through a pile of rubbish. Hundreds of people took turns washing their hair, clothes and feet and brushing their teeth at a five-tap water supply (with no sewerage system) that was supposed to provide drinking water for the entire camp.
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, in Brussels for crisis talks, defended the heavy-handed tactics, adding that other politicians should not criticise Hungary for doing “what was compulsory” under EU regulations.
But Hungarian citizens showed their disapproval of the way the refugees were treated. In Budapest, several people went to the station to help. “I am just really ashamed about the government, that they don’t help these people at all,” said Barbara Baranyai, 31, who had made a collection of baby clothes, shoes, fruit, biscuits and blankets in her neighbourhood and travelled about 20 miles to the station.
“Due to the hate-generating speech of the Hungarian government, they have turned people against these refugees,” said Baranyai, who was distributing her goods with her own 15-month-old son strapped to her back. “I see other countries handling it much better. If I imagine I had to go with my child, crossing seas and walking, then staying like this, living at the station so long, the thought is unbearable.” She broke down in tears.