Hungary has made the unexpected decision to bus refugees to the Austrian border, after over a thousand people blocked from boarding international trains from the capital took matters into their own hands and embarked on the 135km (85 mile) journey on foot.
The government dispatched the buses after a nearly half-mile-long line of people streamed from the international Keleti rail station in Budapest onto a main road on Friday. Shortly after, the Austrian and German governments confirmed they would accept the refugees into their territories.
"Because of today's emergency situation on the Hungarian border, Austria and Germany agree in this case to a continuation of the refugees' journey into their countries," Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann confirmed on Facebook.
Meanwhile in the town of Bicske, hundreds of refugees overwhelmed police officers at a train station near an asylum seeker reception centre, and headed west on a train line. A 51-year-old Pakistani man collapsed around 800 metres from the station, and died despite efforts to help him.
Tensions were also high in the southern village of Roszke, where riot police used tear gas against refugees as they attempted to flee a camp. Some 300 people successfully broke out of the facility, but police officers said they later caught the group, Sky News reported.
Migrants walk in a long line along the highway near Budapest, Hungary (Image: Frank Augstein/AP)
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Images from the scene outside Budapest on Friday afternoon showed desperate refugees, both young and old, clutching their belongings as they started the gruelling walk to Austria in the blazing afternoon sun. Most are expected to head to Germany when they cross border.
Some braved the walk barefoot, while others appeared determined to cross the border despite being in wheelchairs or on crutches.
Faced with the consequences of an unprecedented number of people walking across the country, the Hungarian government said that around 100 buses would arrive in the coming hours to pick up both the refugees at Keleti and the 1,200 who had already set off walking.
Migrants walk on the railway tracks near Bicske (Image: EPA/BALAZS MOHAI )
The mass exodus was in response to attempts by the Hungarian authorities to prevent thousands of people from boarding international trains, as refugees – many from war-torn Syria – sought safety in western Europe.
Hungary has been a land entry point to the EU for tens of thousands of refugees. The situation in there has gradually escalated since the beginning of the week, when officials began blocking refugees from boarding international trains from Keleti, and people were forced to camp outside the station.
Highlighting the stark reality that refugees face, a mother gave birth to a baby girl in the underpass next to the station earlier this week. She named the child Sadan, meaning Shelter. Metres away, another woman nursed her newborn girl Shems, who was also born in the dirty walk-way after an ambulance refused to take her to a hospital, MailOnline reported.
Refugees march from Hungary to Austria
On Thursday, Ticket-holders were allowed to board trains which they believed were heading to Austria and Germany, but were stopped at the town of Biscke - the location of a camp for asylum seekers. There, police ordered passengers to register their applications before they could legally travel on to other Schengen-area countries.
The government has defended its tough stance towards the refugees, and said it is attempting to implement the Dublin Regulation which states that asylum seekers must be registered in the first country they enter.
But many are keen to avoid remaining in Hungary, which is economically depressed and is more likely to return refugees to their countries of origin.
Osama Morzar, 23, from Aleppo, Syria, used acid on his fingertips in the hope his details could not be taken down.
"The government of Hungary is very bad," Mr Morzar, who studied pharmacology at Aleppo's university, told an AP reporter.
"The United Nations should help," he said.
The country’s parliament has responded to this week's turmoil by tightening its immigration rules, approving the creation of transit zones on the Hungarian border with Serbia where refugees would be kept until their asylum requests were decided within eight days.
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Additional reporting by PA
