Migrant crisis: Merkel booed but barbed wire and teargas fail to stem the human tide

Police used teargas on an angry mob in Hungary while German leader Angela Merkel was jeered by far-right protesters in the latest signs of deepening tensions over the migrant crisis on Wednesday. The clashes on the Hungarian border at Roszke saw riot officers use teargas to disperse a crowd of about 200 migrants who had refused to be fingerprinted and were trying to leave a processing centre. It came the day after a record 2,533 people – most of them from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan – were caught entering Hungary from Serbia on Tuesday. More may have passed unnoticed, walking through gaps in an unfinished razor wire barrier across the border prompting officials to dispatch 2,000 “border hunters” to stem the flow. In Germany later, Mrs Merkel was booed and called a traitor by extremists when she visited a refugee centre in Heidenau.

We left because we were scared, we had fear, bombs, war, killing, death… that’s why we left Syria. If I go to Europe, I think it’s going to be better… better than my life in Syria.

Syrian refugee in Hungary

The numbers travelling through the Balkans have soared in recent weeks with most arriving in Greece, going through Macedonia and Serbia to Hungary from where they can reach other richer nations. Serbia said about 10,000 migrants were passing through the country at any time, their stays lengthening as Hungary nears completion of the fence. “The situation will get worse, when winter arrives. We’re getting ready to look after double that number,” Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vucic said. In Heidenau this weekend, neo-Nazi protesters hurled bottles and fireworks, injuring dozens of police officers. Mrs Merkel, who condemned the riots as repulsive, faced activists opposed to an asylum shelter being set up when she visited the town on the Czech border. They honked car horns, booed her and chanted “for the German people” - referring to the sign on the front of the Reichstag. Germany has seen a surge in refugees, with officials predicting the number could reach 800,000 by the end of 2015.

Building fences, using tear gas and other forms of violence against migrants and asylum seekers, detention, withholding access to basics such as shelter, food or water and using threatening language or hateful speech will not stop migrants from coming

UN migrant rights spokesman François Crépeau

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