Hungary’s prime minister angrily accused illegal migrants and refugees yesterday of “rebelling” against the rule of law in his country as security forces across Europe struggled to control record flows of immigrants. Meanwhile one UN agency warned that millions more refugees could arrive in Europe if Syria’s civil war continues to rage.
Many thousands of refugees now trekking from Greece via the Balkans and Hungary towards western Europe are fleeing the Syrian war in search of sanctuary, above all in more generous countries such as Germany and Sweden. Germany has come under fire from Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and other east European leaders for opening its door to asylum seekers, saying such generosity will only encourage many more to come.
They seized railway stations, rejected giving fingerprints and failed to cooperate
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said his country had finite resources and urged other European countries to do much more to share the burden. And as politicians from the left and right accused Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government of losing control of the refugee situation, the defence ministry put 4,000 troops on standby to help with the influx.
Citing security concerns, Austria shut a highway linking Vienna and Hungary yesterday. Some 8,000 people had crossed the border on Thursday and a further 4,500 arrived overnight, Austrian police said. The rail link to Hungary also remains shut due to “massive overburdening” by the migrants.
Hungary is racing to construct a fence along its border with Serbia to help stem the tide. It also plans to implement much tougher immigration rules from next week.
Orban, a fiery populist who has framed the crisis as a battle to preserve Europe’s prosperity and “Christian identity”, angrily criticised the behaviour of the mostly Muslim migrants who have been filling up central Budapest and disrupting traffic along roads running westward to Austria.
“They seized railway stations, rejected giving fingerprints, failed to cooperate and are unwilling to go to places where they would get food, water, accommodation and medical care ... They rebelled against Hungarian legal order,” Orban told reporters.
“From the 15th, Hungarian authorities will not forgive illegal border crossings,” he said.
More than 170,000 migrants have crossed into Hungary from non-EU Serbia so far this year. Many try to avoid being registered in Hungary for fear of being stranded there or returned to the country later in their journey across Europe.
Meanwhile, Denmark, which like Britain has opted out of EU rules on justice and home affairs, said yesterday it would not take part in the European Commission’s relocation scheme for migrants. Finland said it would accept its two per cent share of asylum seekers under the Commission plan but said it remained opposed to mandatory quotas and would cut benefits for refugees.