Austria condemns Hungary’s refugee policies

(Vatican Radio)  Austria's leader has condemned his Hungarian counterpart's hard-line policies towards migrants fleeing war and poverty, saying it's irresponsible to say all are coming for economic reasons. He made the comments after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban defended his plans to seal-off the border with neighbouring Serbia and suggested to spend billions on accommodating refugees in countries bordering Syria.

Listen to Stefan Bos' report:

Yet, Orban defended his plans to seal-off the border with neighbouring Serbia and suggested to spend billions on accommodating refugees in countries bordering Syria.

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann told German weekly Der Spiegel that Austria, Germany, and Sweden recognize the migrants include war refugees and stand by the right to asylum.  He said Hungarian Prime Minister Orban was “acting irresponsibly when he says everyone is an economic refugee."

Faymann was quoted as saying: "Putting refugees on trains in the belief that they are going somewhere totally different awakens memories of our continent's darkest time" - an allusion to the Nazi Holocaust.

Last week an overcrowded train carrying refugees to the border area with Austria was suddenly halted in the Hungarian town of Biscke where authorities attempted to force them to move to a camp. 

At odds

Austria and Germany are also at odds with Prime Minister Orban, who rejects proposed Europe-wide quotas for migrants and has drawn criticism for his management of those streaming through Hungary.

However, in comments published Saturday, Orban defended his policies which includes sealing off the border with Serbia starting Tuesday and detaining refugees who try to enter the country illegally. He told German’s daily Bild that European Union countries should instead spent $3.4 billion in aid to Syria's neighbours, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, to help stem the flow of refugees from camps there.

And Bild quoted him as saying: "There is no fundamental right to a better life, only a right to safety and human dignity." However  Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of advocacy group human rights watch, has said Hungary does not treat refugees with dignity in what are seen as detention camps near Serbia’s border.  "We have been into the detention camps. And they are even more horrific than what you see. That is exactly why the Hungarian authorities are keeping the media out. People are kept in tents like animals, out in the sun without food and water without any medical assistance when they are sick,” he told reporters. “It is simply unacceptable that people are treated as animals on the doorsteps of Europe. The situation for migrants and asylum seekers in Hungary is inhumane and untenable," he said.

Hungary says however it can no longer cope with the influx of migrants. Officials say some 180,000 entered Hungary illegally this year alone, though most of them want to enter more welcoming Western nations.

Rights activists say they do not understand the frosty reception in Hungary from where hundreds of thousands fled and rightfully asked asylum in the West after Soviet forces crushed their 1956 Revolution against Soviet domination.