Austria and Germany agree to receive refugees marching from Hungary

Austria and Germany have agreed to receive thousands of refugees due to arrive at the Hungarian border in the coming hours, Austria’s Chancellor Werner Faymann said early Saturday. Faymann told Austria’s APA agency that he had informed Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban of the decision “in consultation” with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He said it was motivated by “the current emergency at the Hungarian border”. Late Friday Hungary laid on buses to ferry desperate refugees who had set off on foot for the Austrian border after being stranded for days in Budapest’s main railway station, despite mounting efforts by Hungary to crack down on a deepening crisis that is straining Europe’s unity.

We are very happy that something is happening at last. The next stop is Austria. The children are very tired, Hungary is very bad, we have to go somehow.

23-year-old Osama, from Syria

European countries were warned repeatedly about the refugee crisis now playing out on their doorstep and the flood of war-weary, desperate people into Europe should surprise no one, a senior U.N. official said on Friday. Ivan Simonovic, assistant U.N. secretary-general for human rights, spoke to reporters in New York about the escalating migration crisis in Europe, saying it would not subside anytime soon. More than 300,000 people have crossed to Europe by sea so far this year and more than 2,600 have died doing so. Many of those making the voyage are fleeing the civil war in Syria, now in its fifth year.

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