Photo: Hundreds of asylum seekers march on highway towards Budapest. (Reuters: Marko Djurica)
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Hundreds of people have broken through a police line near an asylum seeker centre and marched against oncoming traffic on a highway headed for Budapest.
Key points
- Asylum seekers march on highway headed for Budapest
- Hundreds of asylum seekers enter Denmark
- Thousands arrive and depart from Munich
The group of about 300 walked some 15 kilometres along the M5 highway before police negotiators persuaded them to board buses to take them back to a nearby registration camp for asylum seekers.
Police earlier closed a section of the highway near Roszke in south-east Hungary close to the Serbian border after the group climbed over a barrier and onto the road, which leads to the capital.
The group was part of a 1,000-strong crowd who had earlier pushed past a police line at an asylum seeker collection point at Roszke — the first stop before people are brought to the registration camp.
There were scuffles throughout Monday as asylum seekers chanting "Freedom!" protested at having to wait for hours in the open for buses to take them for registration.
Clashes have broken out between police and asylum seekers, sick of the long delays at the overcrowded collection and registration camp at Roszke, the main crossing point for the thousands of people who have been coming into Hungary every day for the last month.
What isn't acceptable in my view is that some people are saying this has nothing to do with them.
German chancellor Angela Merkel
Police fired tear gas after stones were thrown at officials at the registration camp on Friday.
Some 300 asylum seekers fled the camp earlier, forcing authorities to close the main border crossing with Serbia for around an hour, although they were later caught by police.
About 167,000 migrants have entered Hungary illegally so far this year, with most crossing the border around the Roszke area.
Last Friday, among a raft of anti-migrant laws approved, Hungary's parliament voted to criminalise illegal border crossing, with the ruling expected to come into force on September 15.
Migrant crisis spills into Denmark
Europe's migrant crisis spilled into Denmark on Monday as some 800 people entered the country from Germany and tried to head to Sweden while politicians argued about Copenhagen's immigration policies.
Prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told journalists after an emergency meeting of political party leaders that most of the 800 to 1,000 people who had come to Denmark since Saturday would not seek asylum in the country.
Mr Rasmussen, head of a new minority government dependent on support from a right-wing party, said border controls were no solution, criticised European Union states for not following rules on asylum seekers and said those who had entered over the weekend must register in the country.
The prime minister said the asylum seekers should seek shelter for the night and wait until Danish police coordinated their transfer to Sweden with Swedish authorities.
"We hopefully can reach a situation where people who want to seek asylum in Sweden can do that," he said.
"As a Danish authority, we cannot support people getting to Sweden, if it does not happen with a degree of acceptance from the Swedish authorities."
Danish television channels on Monday showed videos of asylum seekers taking trains from Jutland, in the western part of Denmark connected to Germany, to Copenhagen, where they can ride to Sweden in 35 minutes by train.
Photo: More than 4,000 asylum seekers arrived in Munich on Monday alone. (ABC News: Barbara Miller)
Thousands continue to arrive in Munich
Struggling to cope with record numbers of asylum seekers, Germany told its European partners on Monday they too must take in more refugees.
"I am happy that Germany has become a country that many people outside of Germany now associate with hope," German chancellor Angela Merkel said at a news conference in Berlin
At the scene: Munich train station
Europe correspondent Barbara Miller reports from Munich's train station.
Throughout the day trains have arrived in Munich carrying more and more asylum seekers.
The wild clapping and huge crowds greeting the first arrivals at the weekend have disappeared — but there are still many Germans turning up offering to help.
Anyone who comes to help is directed to a makeshift reception centre where they can hand over donations or give their time. People are being sought who are prepared to work through the night greeting new arrivals.
One woman who doesn't want to speak on camera stands quietly watching the scene at the station. She says she feels so much for the people coming because her family fled East Germany when she was a young girl just before the Berlin Wall went up.
Her parents took her but left her younger sister behind so that the authorities would believe them that they were coming back to East Germany after a visit to relatives in the West.
It was two years before she saw her sister again. Tears well up in her eyes as she recounts the story.
It's an emotional time not just for the asylum seekers — but also for the country receiving them.But she and her vice chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, coupled their message of optimism with a warning to European Union partners who have resisted a push from Berlin, Paris and Brussels to agree to quotas for refugees flowing in mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Photo: Locals at the Munich train station ask how they can help asylum seekers arriving from Syria. (ABC News: Barbara Miller)
"What isn't acceptable in my view is that some people are saying this has nothing to do with them," Ms Merkel said.
"This won't work in the long-run. There will be consequences although we don't want that."
Officials in Bavaria, the southern German state that has become the entry point for asylum seekers arriving from Hungary via Austria, said about 4,400 had arrived in Munich on Monday.
Another 1,500 were on trains heading on to cities elsewhere in Germany.
German and Austrian officials appear to have been caught off guard by the numbers.
"It has now reached a volume that is already considerable," Christoph Hillenbrand, president of the government of Upper Bavaria, told reporters at Munich train station.
He said buses that could take 1,000 people north to cities like Dortmund, Hamburg, Braunschweig and Kiel had been made available, but that asylum seekers had also been streaming out of temporary accommodation facilities on foot.
At Munich's international trade fair grounds, three halls have been given over to the effort, with more than 2,000 camp beds and a dining hall with hot food.
Ms Merkel's welcome to asylum seekers has been praised by human rights groups.
But there were signs of dissent within her conservative camp, with officials from the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), sister party of her Christian Democrats, criticising her handling of the crisis.
"There is no society that could cope with something like this," CSU leader and Bavarian premier Horst Seehofer said.
"The federal government needs a plan here."
While many Germans have welcomed the refugees, there have also been attacks on shelters, including two early on Monday.
AFP/Reuters
