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world NEWSSaturday 5 September 2015
Hundreds march toward border in Hungary’s migrant crisis
S. POGATCHNIK Migrants walk along the Hegyalja Street in Budapest, Hungary, Friday, Sept. 4, 2015. Several tightened its immigration
PABLO GORONDI thousand migrants left the Keleti railway station in Budapest this afternoon heading for Germany rules, approving the cre-
Associated Press on foot. (Zsolt Szigetvary/MTI via AP) ation of transit zones on
BICSKE, Hungary (AP) — the border with Serbia
Hundreds of migrants, sty- tions” and the European thorities and get on the first stop will be Austria, on where migrants would be
mied by Hungarian author- Union for the crisis. buses. Some were tricked Hungary’s western border, kept until asylum requests
ities who had halted trains There was no answer earlier in the week to get though most hope to even- were decided within eight
to Germany, began a final whether Austria will let the on a train that did not go tually reach Germany. days. Migrants would have
march toward freedom Fri- migrants in. Lazar said Hun- to Austria. Hungarian authorities had limited chance to appeal
day, breaking away from gary had asked Austria to “This is a opportunity,” La- refused to let them board those decisions.
police and heading on clarify its position on the zar said. “The immigrants trains to the west, and they In what the Hungarian me-
foot for the western border. migrants but had not yet have to decide whether balked at going to process- dia called a “day of upris-
In a bid to ease the crisis, received an answer. they want to take advan- ing centers for migrants, ings,” about 350 people
the Hungarian govern- The buses will take pas- tage of it. We are taking fearing they would then be broke through a police
ment said in a surprise an- sengers to the main He- this step so Hungary’s trans- forced to live in Hungary. cordon in Bicske and be-
nouncement Friday night gyeshalom crossing with portation is not paralyzed Under European law, refu- gan heading to Austria
it was dispatching buses Austria, although it’s not during the next 24 hours.” gees are supposed to seek 135 kilometers (85 miles) to
to take hundreds of the clear if they will trust au- The asylum-seekers — asylum in the first European the west on tracks leading
marchers to the border many from Syria, Iraq and Union country that they away from the railway sta-
with Austria. It was not Afghanistan — had al- enter. But most of them see tion. Surprised riot police
clear what their fate would ready made dangerous limited economic opportu- scrambled for their helmets
be there. treks in scorching heat, un- nities and a less-welcom- as the huge crowd sud-
With people streaming in der barbed wire on Hunga- ing atmosphere in Hungary denly surged from the front
long lines along highways ry’s southern frontier and than in Germany, Sweden of the train.
from a Budapest train sta- faced the hostility of some and other Western nations. One man, a 51-year-old
tion and one near a mi- locals along the way. Their Earlier Friday, Parliament Pakistani, collapsed about
grant reception center in 800 meters (yards) from the
the northern town of Bic- station as he fled and died
ske, the buses would be despite efforts to rescue
used because “transpor- him.
tation safety can’t be put Those left behind, mostly
at risk,” said Janos Lazar, women and children, were
chief of staff to the prime boarded onto buses and
minister. taken to the nearby asy-
“A migration crisis is shak- lum center.
ing Hungary,” Lazar said, Hours earlier, about 2,000
blaming Germany’s “con- people set out from Bu-
tradictory communica- dapest’s Keleti station for
a 171-kilometer (106-mile)
journey toward Austria. Po-
lice tried to block them at
first but quickly gave up.
The marchers moved fast,
and by nightfall they had
already covered about 50
kilometers (30 miles).q
UN agency forced to cut food aid to
229,000 Syrian refugees
KARIN LAUB Europe. Since 2011, more people where they are or
Associated Press than 4 million Syrians fled they will move.”
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — their country’s civil war, The U.N. agency has been
The cash-strapped World most settling in Jordan, distributing food vouch-
Food Program has had Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and ers to refugees since the
to drop one-third of Syr- Egypt. beginning of the Syria cri-
ian refugees from its food Abeer Etefa, a WFP re- sis, but is facing increasing
voucher program in Mid- gional spokeswoman, said funding gaps. “Since the
dle Eastern host countries the world must do more beginning of this opera-
this year, including 229,000 to support refugees in the tion, it has been hand to
in Jordan who stopped regional host countries or mouth,” said Etefa. “It is
receiving food aid in Sep- face increasing migration. nerve-wracking for the ref-
tember, a spokeswoman “This is a crisis that has ugees and the staff.”
said Friday. been brewing in the re- She said the agency
The sharp cutbacks come gion for five years,” she needs $236 million to keep
at a time when growing said. “Now it is getting the the program — even in
numbers of desperate Syr- attention of the world be- its scaled-back version —
ians who initially found ref- cause it moved one step funded through Novem-
uge in neighboring coun- further from the region to ber. No major donors have
tries are trying to reach Europe. We have to help come forward, she said.q
