Hungarian police reopen Budapest Keleti railway station to migrants
Hungarian authorities have opened up Budapest’s Keleti train station, cordoned off by police for the past two days. Hundreds of people camped outside of the train station are
expected to board trains bound for Germany.
The migrants pushed their way into the train station in the east of the Hungarian capital on Thursday morning after police received the order to withdraw from their positions.
However, just minutes later it became clear that the migrants’ hopes had been dashed – at least for the time being, after Hungary’s national rail carrier announced that there would be no trains departing for western Europe in the immediate future.
“In the interests of rail travel security the company has decide that until further notice, direct train services from Budapest to western Europe will not be in service,” it said in a statement.
Even before the news was announced, many of the migrants stormed trains that were waiting at the station, but apparently not bound for international destinations.
This came after more than 48 hours of a tense standoff between police and the migrants, who at times shouted slogans like “Germany, Germany!”
The development also came as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was set to travel to Brussels for talks with the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, European Council President Donald Tusk, and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on how to cope with the unprecedented wave of refugees towards western Europe.
pfd/kms (Reuters, AP)
