Migrants in Hungary resist refugee camp

(Vatican Radio)  Thousands of migrants in Hungary trying to reach Western Europe rushed into a Budapest train station yesterday and shoved their way onto a waiting train.  The train left the station, but was stopped by police in the nearby town of Bitske at a Hungarian camp for asylum seekers, setting off a bitter showdown.

Listen to Stefan Bos' eyewitness account:

Train station in Bicske

"At the moment, I am standing in front of a green train in the town of Bicske not far from a refugee camp where the Hungarian authorities want to send these people. 

They have been crammed inside this train for many hours during the night. Very few have left in buses to the camp, but most of them stayed put.

 They want to go to Germany, and in front of me I can see signs that say ‘Help! Help!’, ‘Let us go’, and ‘Germany! Germany!’. 

Inside are people of perhaps different faiths.  We know there are also Syrian Christians trying to escape from the country; many Muslims, of course; and others who seek freedom.

They are now in the train.  What happened was they were leaving the main train station in Budapest, believing they would be brought to the border, but in reality they were halted by the Hungarian authorities and they are basically camping in the train here in Bicske just outside Budapest."

European Union talks

"Today, foreign ministers of the European Union will meet to discuss what to do next with migrants fleeing war and poverty.  They want to seek an urgent policy to cope with this. 

Hungary is saying it cannot cope with the problem anymore.  It already has about 160,000 migrants entering the country illegally this year alone, according to the right-wing Prime Minister Victor Orban.

Within the European Union, there is tremendous frustration over Orban’s policies, including this train which we are watching now.  But also his policy of erecting a very controversial 175 kilometre-long fence along the border with Serbia.

At the same time, the Hungarian parliament today will vote on sending the army to the border, perhaps as many as 3,000 troops. There is also talk about how to punish migrants even more if they break through the fence, with up to 4 years imprisonment for those who do so."