A day after leaving the central train station in Budapest aboard a train they hoped was bound for Germany, hundreds of refugees remained onboard, locked in a tense standoff with police.
Police stood alongside the train in Bicske, a town northwest of Budapest that holds one of the country's five camps for asylum seekers — facilities the migrants want to avoid because they don't want to pursue asylum claims in the economically depressed country.
Those onboard refused to go to a center where authorities are demanding that they register. Someone scrawled graffiti on the side of one of the cars that read, "No camp, No Hungary, Freedom train."
Police at #Bicske station impassive as #refugees chant 'Germany' 'Freedom' 'No camp'. V tricky for govt to solve now. pic.twitter.com/Ss3hwFAMCH— Lindsey Hilsum (@lindseyhilsum) September 4, 2015
In protest of their inability to leave Hungary, many of the refugees are refusing the water and food that police have offered, shouting "No food! No food!" and holding signs with the same message.
The head of police border control, Col. Laszlo Balazs, said 16 people voluntarily checked into the asylum center on Thursday, while about 500 others refused.
On Friday, a bus transported around 20 others to the center, but they promptly scales the fences and left.
This gets more absurd. 20 or so bussed into camp from refugee train. Immediately jumped gate and walked away. pic.twitter.com/WmXySpeXSW— James Mates (@jamesmatesitv) September 4, 2015
Elsewhere in Europe, Friday saw conditions deteriorating for refugees as well. In Kos, an eastern Greek island that has become one of the main destination for people travelling by boat from Turkey, refugees were reportedly attacked overnight.
Amnesty International reported that their staff witnessed a group of 15-25 people attack refugees on Kos with bats while shouting "go back to your countries" and other slurs.
“The refugees we met on Kos have fled war and persecution in countries including Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. They include children, some with their families but others travelling alone. The hellish conditions the refugees are now forced to endure and the official indifference to their plight are appalling,” said Kondylia Gogou, Greece Researcher at Amnesty International in a statement.
Refugees am Bahnhof in #Bicske pic.twitter.com/gfDc31plVg— Klaus Werner-Lobo (@olobo) September 4, 2015
In Geneva, the head of the U.N. refugee agency called for the European Union to take "urgent and courageous measures" to deal with the crisis.
Agency chief Antonio Guterres said refugees should benefit from a mass relocation program and called for authorities to crack down on human smugglers.
His comments Friday came a day after a round of recriminations among EU leaders. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said the human wave is a German problem, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the obligation to protect refugees "applies not just in Germany, but in every European member."
The scene this morning. Many refugees are out of train shouting messages to media across platform. Otherwise standoff pic.twitter.com/UoyiAqrJ5u— James Mates (@jamesmatesitv) September 4, 2015
Orban has warned European partners that he intends to make his country's borders an impassable fortress for new arrivals. His chief of staff, Janos Lazar, said 160,000 migrants had reached Hungary this year, 90,000 of them in the past two months alone.
On Hungarian state radio Friday morning Orban reiterated his fears that Europeans will end up "a minority in our own continent."
The same familiar chants this morning 'Germany, Germany' from the migrant train to nowhere https://t.co/zNHrC0P0m6— georgina brewer (@Georginaitv) September 4, 2015
"Today we are talking about tens of thousands but next year we will be talking about millions and this has no end," Orban said.
"We have to make it clear that we can't allow everyone in, because if we allow everyone in, Europe is finished," Orban went on. "If you are rich and attractive to others, you also have to be strong because if not, they will take away what you have worked for and you will be poor, too."
Some information from the Associated Press.