Hungary made plans yesterday to reinforce its southern border with helicopters, mounted police and dogs, and was also considering using the army as record numbers of migrants, many of them Syrian refugees, passed through coils of razor-wire into Europe.

The surge in migrants seeking refuge from conflict or poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia has confronted Europe with its worst refugee crisis since World War Two, stirring social tensions and testing the resources and solidarity of the 28-nation European Union.

A record 2,533 mainly Syrians, Afghans and Pakistanis crossed from Serbia into EU member Hungary on Tuesday, into the hands of an over-stretched police force that struggled to fingerprint and process them. Authorities said over 140,000 had been caught entering so far this year. Unrest flared at a crowded reception centre in the Roszke, with tear gas fired by police. Another 1,300 were detained yesterday. More will have passed unnoticed, walking through gaps in a border fence being built by Hungary in what critics say is a futile attempt to keep them out. They packed a train station in the capital, Budapest, hundreds of men, women and children on the floor in a ‘transit zone’ for migrants.

Many hope to reach Germany or Sweden

Almost all hope to reach the more affluent countries such as Germany and Sweden. Hungary, which is part of Europe’s Schengen passport-free travel zone, is building a 3.5-metre high fence along its border with Serbia, taking a hard line on what right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban says is a threat to European security, prosperity and identity.

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said Parliament would debate next week whether to employ the army in the border effort. In Roszke, the police spokesman said some 200 migrants at the reception centre where unrest flared had refused to be fingerprinted, fearing that, as per EU rules, if they are stopped later elsewhere in the EU they will be returned to Hungary as their point of entry.

“My brother is in Sweden,” said one migrant. “He told me to chop my hands off rather than give my fingerprints to the Hungarians. So we’re trying to find a way to Austria without meeting Hungarian police.”

Greece has taken to ferrying mainly Syrian migrants from its overwhelmed islands to Athens. Some 50,000 hit Greek shores by boat from Turkey in July alone.

Some European leaders have complained that Greece fails to register its arrivals, meaning their first recognised point of entry is often elsewhere and Athens does not risk them being sent back.

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