Some families have been stranded in Budapest for days

Migrant crisis: Hungary train standoff enters second day

A tense stand-off between police and migrants on a train in Hungary is continuing into a second day.

On Thursday, police let the migrants board the train in Budapest but then tried to force them off at a refugee camp to the west of the capital.

Hungarian MPs face a key vote later on whether to tighten border controls as migrants try to pass through to their preferred destination, Germany.

Three other European meetings on Friday will discuss the migrant crisis.

 

Members of the European Commission are also flying to the Greek island of Kos to examine the difficulties caused by the large numbers of refugees and migrants landing there.

'Ashamed'
The Hungarian MPs will also vote on creating new holding camps for migrants, and on whether the situation constitutes a state of emergency.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Thursday described the situation as a "German problem" as Germany was where those arriving in the EU "would like to go".

However, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn - who is heading the EU meetings on the crisis - criticised Hungary's conservative leader on German television on Thursday night, saying: "One sometimes has to be ashamed for Viktor Orban."

European Council President Donald Tusk said at least 100,000 refugees should be distributed across EU states - a sharp increase on a previous European Commission target of 40,000.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande said they would present plans for the redistribution of refugees within the EU.

The British government, in particular, is coming under growing pressure to take in more migrants.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to announce plans to allow more Syrian refugees into the country, to help ease a crisis brought to the fore this week by images of a three-year-old Syrian boy found drowned in Turkey.

Mr Cameron is heading to Spain and Portugal for talks on Friday that are sure to include the migrant crisis.

International services had been suspended at Budapest's Keleti railway station but hundreds crammed on to the first train on Thursday, hoping it would take them to the Austrian border.

Instead, the train stopped at the Hungarian town of Bicske about 40km (25 miles) west of Budapest, which hosts a major refugee camp. Police then lined the platforms.

Some people at first left the train but then forced their way back on when they realised where the authorities wanted them to go.

They fear that registering at the camp will make it harder for them to seek asylum in Germany and other countries.

Images showed the migrants sleeping overnight on the train at Bicske.

Many people also continued to camp out at Keleti station, and elsewhere in Budapest, overnight.

  • While the uncertainty continues in Budapest, a series of high-level talks on the crisis will take place across Europe on Friday:
    The leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary will hold an extraordinary summit in Prague
    European Commission officials will arrive on the island of Kos, in Greece, where thousands of migrants have arrived by boat
    EU foreign ministers will meet in Brussels

Migrants or refugees?

The word migrant is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "one who moves, either temporarily or permanently, from one place, area, or country of residence to another".

A refugee is, according to the 1951 Refugee Convention, any person who "owing to a well-founded fear" of persecution is outside their country of nationality and "unable" or "unwilling" to seek the protection of that country. To gain the status, one has to go through the legal process of claiming asylum.

The word migrant has traditionally been considered a neutral term, but some criticise the BBC and other media for using a word they say implies something voluntary, and should not be applied to people fleeing danger.

Credit: The BBC 


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