Desperate but defiant, refugees make way across Hungary toward Austria

Hungary’s government will offer to transport thousands of migrants by bus to the Austrian border in the next few hours, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff Janos Lazar said on Friday. The buses will be sent to pick up the thousands of migrants at Budapest’s main railway terminus and 1,200 who are walking along the main westward motorway towards Austria, he told a news conference. A mass of desperate refugees stranded at Budapest’s main rail station for days set off on foot for the Austrian border earlier Friday, 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.