Refugees in Hungary leave train station, camps

Hundreds of refugees at Budapest's eastern train station have left and are starting to walk to Austria, reported DW correspondent Max Hofmann from the station on Friday. According to a photographer for Reuters, the stranded refugees began to walk after being blocked from boarding trains to Austria, since Hungary cancelled all trains traveling to western Europe.

"When we are traveling in small groups, then the police can catch us, but all together we are strong," said a young Syrian man from Aleppo, as quoted by DPA news agency. Police at the station have initially allowed the group to leave.

Camp outbreak

In a separate incident in Hungary, around 300 refugees broke out of a reception camp in the town of Roszke on the Serbian border. "According to police estimates, [they] at 11:30 (0930 UTC) broke through the fence of the Roszke migrant collection point in two groups and ran toward the M5 motorway. The police have taken the necessary steps to apprehend them," said officials in a statement.

In response, Hungarian police closed the Roszke border crossing saying, "in the interest of preventing accidents."

Police spokeswoman Viktoria Csiszer-Kovacs reported that those who broke out split into two groups and are being pursued by police.

The remaining 2,300 refugees are threatening to break out as well if their demands are not met. Although it was not clear what the demands were, police said they are trying to find a peaceful solution.

Tensions rising between capitals

The German government warned Budapest that Berlin's decision not to expel Syrian refugees back to their point of entry in the EU does not absolve Hungary from its obligation to process asylum applications.

"As part of a Western community ... Hungary must meet its legal and humanitarian obligations," government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in Berlin.

Hungary's conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban has leveled accusations that Germany's lax enforcement of migration rules was encouraging refugees to flee to Europe.

His government has built a razor-wire fence along the border with Serbia to keep migrants out and plans to reinforce it with police and military patrols from mid-September. And it has proposed three-year prison sentences for those who illegally cross and even longer for those who cut through fences.

Orban has also said Hungary does not want to shelter Muslims, citing the Ottoman occupation which happened centuries ago.

That's led to dismay in many western European capitals.

"Sometimes one must feel shame because of Viktor Orban. He has spoiled much in Hungary, but also much when it comes to values in the European Union," Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn told the German television broadcaster ZDF.

"It would be disastrous if we had to impose sanctions on countries to force them into showing humanity," Asselborn said when asked whether Hungary could be forced to treat migrants differently.

Meanwhile, Berlin has tried to defuse tensions. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged European countries to stop blaming each other in the migration crisis, warning of a split among members in the European Union.

"We will not cope with this task if we do not stop pointing with the finger at our neighbor. Blaming one another will not lead us to get the problem under control," Steinmeier said ahead of a meeting with EU foreign ministers. "Europe cannot let itself be divided, even in the face of such a challenge."

rs,jar/kms,se (AFP, dpa, Reuters)