Thousands of migrants streamed into Austria from Hungary on Saturday, in what Vienna called a "wake up call" for Europe to get to grips with its biggest refugee influx since World War II.
"This has to be an eye opener how messed up the situation in Europe is now," Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said as he arrived for talks in Luxembourg with his EU peers dominated by the crisis.
"I hope that this serves as a wake up call that (the situation) cannot continue."
Austrian police said that 4,000 people crossed the border during the night and on Saturday morning, with the number predicted to rise later to 10,000.
Their arrival followed the decision by Hungary, which has become a flashpoint in the crisis, to bus thousands of migrants stranded in Budapest for days to the Austrian border.
The packed buses, in which people were strewn across the floors, using bottles for pillows, departed all through the night.
Hungary laid on the buses after around 1,200 migrants set out on foot from Budapest for the Austrian border, 175 kilometres (110 miles) away, and after large numbers escaped from refugee camps.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto blamed Saturday the "failed migration policy of the EU and ... irresponsible statements made by some European politicians."
At least 500 more migrants embarked on similar march from Budapest towards the Austrian border Saturday, an AFP correspondent in the Hungarian capital said.
There appeared to be no more buses however to ferry them to the frontier.
Trains to Germany
People arriving off buses earlier walked across the frontier to the Austrian town of Nickelsdorf where authorities had set up a makeshift shelter.
"The streams (of people) keep coming," Hans Peter Doskozil, chief of police in Burgenland state, who was at the border, said Saturday morning.
Looking exhausted but happy, most boarded special buses and trains to Vienna, to take trains bound for Salzburg and from there continue to Munich, or other services running to other German cities.
German police said they expected up to 7,000 of the migrants to reach German territory Saturday.
In Vienna, the migrants, some carrying sleeping children and many wrapped in blankets, were greeted by large numbers of volunteers handing out food, drinks, sanitary products and train tickets.
"My toes hurt, a lot of blood, we walked too much. I want to go (to) Germany, but then I stop," one 26-year-old Syrian man from Homs, both his feet wrapped in thick bandages, told AFP.
One refugee held up a big sign saying "Austrians Danke schoen" ("Austrians thank you").
"After endless examples of shameful treatment by governments of refugees and migrants in Europe, it is a relief to finally see a sliver of humanity," said Amnesty International's Gauri van Gulik.
"But this is far from over, both in Hungary and in Europe as a whole. The pragmatic and humane approach finally applied here should become the rule not the exception."
Human cost
Hundreds of thousands of migrants have been making often perilous journeys to Europe this summer, most of them trying to reach countries in western Europe, particularly Germany.
New data from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Saturday showed that 366,402 migrants have landed in Europe via the treacherous sea route this year, with a further 2,800 dead or missing.
Forty-nine percent were escaping the brutal civil war and Islamic State extremists in Syria. Germany's government, which has said it will no longer deport Syrian refugees, expects to receive 800,000 asylum applications this year.
The human cost of the crisis was made horrifically clear this week by photographs of the body of a three-year-old Syrian, Aylan Kurdi, washed up on a beach in Turkey.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warned Friday the 28-member EU faced a "defining moment" and called for the mandatory resettlement of 200,000 refugees by EU states.
EU foreign ministers met in Luxembourg on Saturday to discuss the crisis ahead of a "State of the Union" address next week by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.
Juncker has proposed mandatory quotas for resettling 160,000 refugees, despite an earlier plan for 40,000 meeting stiff opposition, notably from Hungary, and attracting offers of places for only 32,000.
Germany and France back quotas but Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia together rejected any such imposition in a statement on Friday.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban during the week called the crisis a "German problem".
"Nobody wants to stay in Hungary, neither in Slovakia, nor Poland, nor Estonia. All want to go to Germany," he said.
Hungary has become a major entry point for migrants trekking up from Greece through the western Balkans, with some 50,000 entering the EU member state in August alone and several thousand more every day.
Hungary has responded by criminalising unauthorised border crossing and any damage to a razor-wire fence recently erected along the border with Serbia.
"We must not forget that those who are coming in have been brought up under a different religion and represent a profoundly different culture," Orban wrote in a German newspaper this week.
"The majority are not Christians but Muslims. That is an important question because Europe and European culture have Christian roots."
AFP
Sat Sep 05 2015
Hungary laid on the buses after around 1,200 migrants set out on foot from Budapest for the Austrian border, 175 kilometres (110 miles) away, and after large numbers escaped from refugee camps. - AFP Photo
KEDA berhasrat tanam padi wangi, padi huma tahun ini
Lembaga Kemajuan Wilayah Kedah (KEDA) berhasrat membangunkan tanaman padi wangi dan padi huma di beberapa kawasan pertanian dalam wilayahnya, tahun ini.
Mesyuarat perundingan Enam Pihak Arab bincangkan perkembangan di Gaza
Mesyuarat perundingan Jawatankuasa Enam Pihak Arab itu membincangkan perkembangan serangan Israel ke atas Semenanjung Gaza.
Chegubard didakwa di Mahkamah Sesyen KL esok - Peguam
Badrul Hisham Shaharin atau dikenali Chegubard akan didakwa di Mahkamah Sesyen Kuala Lumpur esok atas pertuduhan memfitnah dan menghasut.
Pulau Pinang, kerajaan pusat bekerjasama tarik pelaburan semikonduktor
Kerajaan Pulau Pinang akan bekerjasama dengan Kerajaan Persekutuan untuk meneruskan usaha menarik pelaburan dalam sektor semikonduktor, termasuk segmen reka bentuk litar bersepadu (IC) di negeri itu.
Rakyat Malaysia di Jordan jadi duta produk PMKS negara
Menteri Pembangunan Usahawan dan Koperasi Datuk Ewon Benedick menyarankan rakyat Malaysia yang menetap di Jordan supaya memainkan peranan sebagai “duta” untuk mempromosikan produk perusahaan mikro kecil dan sederhana (PMKS) SERTA koperasi negara.
Mohamed Khaled tiba di Indonesia, dijadual bertemu Prabowo
Menteri Pertahanan Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin tiba di Jakarta hari ini untuk lawatan kerja rasmi sulung beliau ke Indonesia sejak memegang jawatan itu.
SPRM mohon maklumat dari Jerman
Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) memohon maklumat terkini daripada pihak berkuasa Jerman mengenai dana bon 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) yang dipercayai digunakan untuk membeli kereta mewah di negara itu pada 26 Okt 2022.
SPRM siasat pemimpin kanan di utara tanah air
Seorang pemimpin kanan di utara tanah air disiasat Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) kerana disyaki melantik beberapa syarikat yang mempunyai kepentingan dengannya membabitkan beberapa projek pembekalan melibatkan peruntukan kira-kira RM300,000.
Kembangkan kandungan tempatan melalui AI
Menurut Setiausaha Agung Organisasi Kerjasama Digital (DCO) Deemah Al Yahya, terdapat 2.7 peratus daripada penduduk dunia tidak berhubung malah tidak mempunyai sambungan asas internet. Beliau turut berkata infrastruktur pengkomputeran setiap negara perlu mempunyai kemampuan untuk mengembangkan kandungan tempatan khususnya yang melibatkan penggunaan AI.
AI tidak dapat ganti guru
Menteri Pendidikan Rwanda, Gaspard Twagirayezu berkata kepesatan teknologi AI dalam pendidikan tidak dapat menggantikan guru malah membantu guru dalam menyediakan bahan pengajaran yang bermanfaat kepada pelajar.
4 maut pesawat ringan terhempas di pergunungan Austria
Kesemua empat penumpang sebuah pesawat ringan terbunuh dalam nahas di kawasan pergunungan di utara Austria, kata pihak berkuasa, lapor dpa.
Duta Austria mahu perkukuh persahabatan Malaysia-Austria
Hubungan Malaysia-Austria telah berkembang dengan baik sejak hubungan dua hala terjalin pada 1962, terutama dari segi ekonomi.
Kedah terus terima pelaburan besar walaupun pandemik - Sanusi
Kedah terus menerima pelaburan besar walaupun dalam persekitaran pandemik COVID-19 dan terkini membabitkan projek bernilai RM8.5 bilion dari syarikat Austria.
Berdiri dalam kotak dipenuhi ais, lelaki Austria ini cipta rekod baharu!
Josef Koeberl, 42, berjaya menahan diri dalam suhu sejuk itu selama dua jam, 30 minit dan 57 saat.
MotoGP: Saya anggap diri saya amat bertuah - Morbidelli
"Saya mengalami bengkak, tetapi semuanya baik. Melihat pada rakaman kemalangan itu, saya bersyukur selamat."
Pengeluar tudung tempatan perkenal tudung bernilai RM100,000
Tudung itu diperbuat daripada fabrik voile berdiameter 1.14 meter, ditaburi 7,512 kristal Swarovski pelbagai warna dan bentuk.
Austria catat dua jangkitan pertama COVID-19
Pasangan dari Bergamo di Lombardy itu telah berpindah ke Austria pada Jumaat dan kini dirawat di Innsbruck.
Berbakat sungguh! Panda di zoo Austria hasilkan lukisan berharga ratusan Euro!
Hampir 100 karya lukisan Yang Yang telah dijual secara dalam talian pada harga 490 Euro (RM2,340) setiap satu.
Anggota polis di Jerman cedera ditembak rakan setugas
Mereka telah masuk ke gereja itu susulan kehadiran seorang lelaki warganegara Austria berusia 53 tahun yang memegang pisau dan bertindak menjerit-jerit di dalam gereja.