http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-...o-hungary-amid-rush-of-asylum-seekers/6766802
European migrant crisis: Austria suspends cross-border trains as record number of asylum seekers head to Europe
Updated about 9 hours ago
PHOTO: Asylum seekers packed the Keleti station in Budapest, Hungary, after Austria suspended its train services.(Reuters: Bernadett Szabo)
RELATED STORY: EU Parliament backs plan to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers
RELATED STORY: EU states to be forced to take in 160,000 refugees
MAP: HungaryEuropean Union plan to distribute 160,000 new arrivals among member states was a mere "drop in the ocean".
Hungarian police said 3,321 people had entered in just 24 hours, hurrying to cross before harsh new anti-migrant laws take effect, an imposing new fence is completed, and the weather worsens.
The United Nation's refugee agency on Tuesday warned at least 42,000 were expected to enter Hungary by next week.
Many have endured treacherous sea journeys across the Mediterranean - most fleeing war and poverty in Syria, Afghanistan or Pakistan and hoping to reach Germany.
Call to stop bringing asylum seekers to train stations
Once inside Hungary, overstretched police have struggled to control and register the new arrivals, who mostly board trains and buses bound for the border with Austria.
Hundreds have broken through Hungarian police lines in recent days near the flashpoint border village of Roszke after waiting for hours to get on buses.
PHOTO: An elated asylum seeker crosses the border between Hungary and Austria. (Reuters: Leonhard Foeger)
But Austria's train operator on Thursday suspended services with Hungary because of "massive overcrowding", calling on bus companies and volunteers to stop bringing asylum seekers to stations.
At the time of the announcement, about 500 asylum seekers were held back by police at Budapest's Keleti main station.
Earlier, police reported around 2,000 people were in Keleti trying to board trains to the Austrian capital.
Austrian rail company OeBB said services were halted because it could not handle the volume of people crossing its border.
"It would be irresponsible to simply let people keep streaming in and spend the night at train stations," a spokesman said.
"Ever more people are arriving daily. It far exceeds our capacity."
It was too soon to tell whether the services would resume on Friday, he said.
He also said, unlike last weekend when some 15,000 passed through bound for Germany, no special trains for Germany were planned, and that in regular trains to Germany only a limited number of asylum seekers were allowed to board.
The announcement came after 3,700 people crossed the border on foot from Hungary overnight, many of whom were then taken to stations in Vienna on trains and buses to board trains to Germany.
Hundreds of people continued to line up at the Austrian border on Thursday afternoon, where there is no formal frontier post as both countries are members of the European Union's open-borders Schengen agreement.
Eastern EU states oppose binding quotas
In an effort to control the crisis, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday
unveiled a new plan for the bloc to share out 160,000 asylum seekers to ease the burden on frontline states.
The plan was backed by the EU Parliament on Thursday and will be considered at an emergency meeting on Monday.
Members of the European Parliament also voted in favour of a permanent mechanism of binding quotas to deal with future emergencies, a measure supported by Germany.
Europe's biggest economy wants compulsory long-term EU quotas with no limits on numbers, with deputy chancellor Sigmar Gabriel on Thursday likening Mr Juncker's proposals to "a drop in the ocean".
"The distribution of 160,000 refugees across Europe is a first step, if one wants to be polite," he said.
Asylum seekers as Germany's saviour
Germany may have found a solution to the problem of its ageing population as asylum seekers continue to arrive, writes Andrew McCathie in Berlin.
But binding quotas are already facing fierce resistance from eastern members of the EU, with Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico saying his country would not "bow down" to Berlin.
"We say no to mandatory quotas. I don't want to wake up one day and have 50,000 people here about whom we know nothing," Mr Fico said on Wednesday.
The EU quota plans must be approved by a majority of EU states, and Berlin said it was open to a special EU refugee summit ahead of the next scheduled summit on October 14.
Mr Juncker's proposals also include a possible revision of the EU's much-criticised Dublin Treaty, under which asylum claims must be processed by the country of arrival.
At the same time, Hungary has backtracked on its proposal to establish controversial "transit zones" at its Serbian border, opting rather to provide numerous outlets for processing asylum seekers.
The US has also reached out its hand to help relieve the ongoing crisis, with president Barack Obama stating in a speech at the White House that the US will admit at least 10,000 refugees from Syria over the next year.
Meanwhile, on the Greek island of Lesbos, boats full of migrants and refugees continue to arrive.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were making a gruelling 50-60 kilometre walk from their landing place to the main town where they must go to receive registration papers.
"We have been walking for four hours. There is no bus, no taxi, no water, no anything," said Mohammed Yassin al-Jahabra, a 23-year-old English literature student, surrounded by a crowd of anxious and exhausted friends and family.
Earlier this week, officials on Lesbos registered a staggering 15,000 refugees in just over 24 hours after a huge backlog had built up, leaving people stranded on the island for days in filthy conditions.
. Or maybe P0rkis as well. 
