ROSZKE, Hungary A surge in migrants, many of them refugees from Syria, hit Hungary’s southern border on Tuesday, passing through gaps in an unfinished barrier to a Europe groping for answers to its worst refugee crisis since World War Two. But there’s no wire over railroad lines and roads, and there are doors on the fence where the migrants can enter and formally seek asylum.
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“Simply put, Europe is in a situation that is not worthy of Europe”, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, calling for a “dialogue with the people” on how to redistribute the refugees fairly within the EU.
As Germany prepares to receive a record 800,000 asylum seekers this year, anti-migrant sentiment has surfaced with a spate of attacks against refugee centres.
Hungary is sending police reinforcements and may deploy troops to its frontier with Serbia, where tear gas was fired on Wednesday as record numbers of migrants defied efforts to tighten border security.
Membership means those who make it into Hungary can travel without further border checks to northern countries such as Austria, Germany, parts of Scandinavia, and France where they can get to Calais on their way to the UK.
The push over the border by migrants fleeing conflict and poverty within the Center East, Africa and Asia adopted Macedonia’s choice to raise a three-day blockade of its border with Greece after hundreds of migrants merely stormed previous the Macedonian police who tried to cease them with drive.
Hungary is attractive to the migrants because unlike other EU members in southeastern Europe like Croatia, Bulgaria and Romania it is the passport-free Schengen zone, making onwards travel much easier.
Coast guard Lt. Claudio Bernetti said the Swedish ship Poseiden, part of the European Union’s Mediterranean operation, also rescued 439 surviving migrants from the ship. Police said the migrants were growing impatient with registration delays.
Swedish coastguard spokesman Mattias Lindholm said the Poseidon had been able to save 439 people on the wooden boat.
Up to 3,000 migrants are expected to cross into Macedonia on a daily basis throughout the next several months, as the European Commission eyes court action against over a dozen member states for violating asylum rules.
In practice, this mea-ns that countries on the EU’s borders like Gree-ce or Italy are overwhe-lmed with applications as thousands arrive by sea on their shores. Embroiled in a debilitating economic crisis, Greece has taken to ferrying mainly Syrian migrants from its overwhelmed islands to Athens, from where they head north by bus.
Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic has pointed out that Croatia, like Hungary, is not the intended final destination of most refugees.
Even as the migrants entered, the Hungarian army was busy building a border fence to keep them out, bulldozers and heavy machinery shifting earth and erecting walls. In June, the country helped block a proposal for EU countries to take in set numbers of the refugees arriving in the bloc.
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According to Reuters, Lazar’s remarks came a day after European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker criticised bickering EU governments for “finger pointing” instead of confronting the migrant crisis with viable measures. “We raised the fence and crossed it now”.
