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| Syrian family said to be among refugees suffocated in lorry | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The refugees found suffocated to death inside a truck in Austria last week almost certainly included a Syrian family of six and two Pakistani men, volunteers working at a camp in Hungary have said. | The refugees found suffocated to death inside a truck in Austria last week almost certainly included a Syrian family of six and two Pakistani men, volunteers working at a camp in Hungary have said. |
| Some of the victims had stayed at the camp at Budapest’s Keleti station run by Migration Aid, a volunteer group. They were among 71 people who travelled last Wednesday in the back of a refrigerated van from the central Hungarian city of Kecskemét. | Some of the victims had stayed at the camp at Budapest’s Keleti station run by Migration Aid, a volunteer group. They were among 71 people who travelled last Wednesday in the back of a refrigerated van from the central Hungarian city of Kecskemét. |
| Their badly decomposing bodies were discovered on Thursday on Austria’s A4 motorway near the town of Parndorf. Four men – three Bulgarian nationals and an Afghan – appeared in court over the weekend. | Their badly decomposing bodies were discovered on Thursday on Austria’s A4 motorway near the town of Parndorf. Four men – three Bulgarian nationals and an Afghan – appeared in court over the weekend. |
| Related: A laboratory for refugee politics: inside Passau, the 'German Lampedusa' | Related: A laboratory for refugee politics: inside Passau, the 'German Lampedusa' |
| “We are 99% sure that a Syrian family – a mother and father with four children, who had stayed on this site – were in the lorry,” a volunteer who helps out as an interpreter from Arabic to his native Hungarian, “Baba”, told the Guardian on Monday. | |
| He said: “Another Syrian family had been waiting for them in Germany, and when they didn’t arrive, they called us up, and then we heard the news from Austria.” | He said: “Another Syrian family had been waiting for them in Germany, and when they didn’t arrive, they called us up, and then we heard the news from Austria.” |
| Tamás Lederer, 42, a university professor and the de facto head of Migration Aid, said: “The other Syrian family had been here some weeks before: that’s how they had my telephone number. One of them called to say the family should be here. We worked out what had happened from pictures that appeared online.” | |
| “There were also two Pakistani gentlemen in their 20s,” he said, adding that “people here are devastated”. | “There were also two Pakistani gentlemen in their 20s,” he said, adding that “people here are devastated”. |
| According to Baba, the 71 victims would be hard to identify. “Most people in the truck hadn’t been fingerprinted. We know this because most didn’t have a police paper, just an armband. Nowadays the police and immigration are so overrun that they can’t even ask their names,” he said. | According to Baba, the 71 victims would be hard to identify. “Most people in the truck hadn’t been fingerprinted. We know this because most didn’t have a police paper, just an armband. Nowadays the police and immigration are so overrun that they can’t even ask their names,” he said. |
| The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was due to address Europe’s escalating refugee crisis later on Monday, amid divisions among EU states as to how to deal with it. France’s foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, criticised Hungary’s decision to build a 109m (175km) fence along its southern border with Serbia. The four-metre high fence is due to be completed by Tuesday. | |
| Fabius described the move in an interview with French radio as “extremely harsh”. He said: “Hungary is part of Europe, which has values, and we do not respect those values by putting up a fence that we wouldn’t even use for animals.” | Fabius described the move in an interview with French radio as “extremely harsh”. He said: “Hungary is part of Europe, which has values, and we do not respect those values by putting up a fence that we wouldn’t even use for animals.” |
| Hungary has defended the fence, saying it is needed to keep illegal migrants out of the European Union. Its foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, said he would summon a French embassy representative in protest at Fabius’s “shocking and groundless judgments”. | Hungary has defended the fence, saying it is needed to keep illegal migrants out of the European Union. Its foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, said he would summon a French embassy representative in protest at Fabius’s “shocking and groundless judgments”. |
| “It appears that certain people in Europe are still not capable of understanding what astonishing and dramatic pressure Hungary is under from migration via the western Balkans,” Szijjártó said. | “It appears that certain people in Europe are still not capable of understanding what astonishing and dramatic pressure Hungary is under from migration via the western Balkans,” Szijjártó said. |
| An emergency summit of EU interior and justice ministers is due to be held on 14 September in Brussels. “The situation of migration phenomena outside and inside the European Union has recently taken unprecedented proportions,” the presidency of the Council of the European Union, currently held by Luxembourg, said. | An emergency summit of EU interior and justice ministers is due to be held on 14 September in Brussels. “The situation of migration phenomena outside and inside the European Union has recently taken unprecedented proportions,” the presidency of the Council of the European Union, currently held by Luxembourg, said. |
| Meanwhile, Austria has stepped up inspections of vehicles travelling between Budapest and Vienna. There were 16-mile (25km) tailbacks on Monday on the main highway between the two capitals. Traffic was also slower than usual at other Hungary-Austria border crossings. | |
| The Austrian interior ministry said that about 200 asylum seekers had been stopped as part of the operation and five people traffickers arrested. It denied its checks were in breach of the Schengen agreement on border-free travel. Konrad Kogler, director general for public security at the ministry, said: “In the hours since we started implementing these measures that we agreed with Germany, Hungary and Slovakia, we have been able to get more than 200 refugees out of such vehicles and we have been able to detain five smugglers.” | The Austrian interior ministry said that about 200 asylum seekers had been stopped as part of the operation and five people traffickers arrested. It denied its checks were in breach of the Schengen agreement on border-free travel. Konrad Kogler, director general for public security at the ministry, said: “In the hours since we started implementing these measures that we agreed with Germany, Hungary and Slovakia, we have been able to get more than 200 refugees out of such vehicles and we have been able to detain five smugglers.” |
| Hungarian police said a fifth man was detained on Saturday evening on suspicion of human trafficking. Earlier on Saturday a court in Kecskemét – a smuggling centre halfway between Budapest and the migrants’ most common entry point of Röszke – remanded the four truck suspects in custody for a month. They were a 28-year-old Afghan and three Bulgarians aged 29, 30 and 50. As the bodies were found in Austria, the Hungarian courts will only deal with smuggling charges. | |
| Over the weekend, the dead were mourned at a candle-lit shrine on the steps of Budapest’s train station. Syrians and other nationalities chanted “Germany! Germany! Germany! Let us go! Let us go!” in two impromptu demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday. | Over the weekend, the dead were mourned at a candle-lit shrine on the steps of Budapest’s train station. Syrians and other nationalities chanted “Germany! Germany! Germany! Let us go! Let us go!” in two impromptu demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday. |
| Migration Aid began helping 100-200 refugees in the underpass to Keleti metro station five months ago. It has experienced soaring numbers of up to 1,500 people in recent days. | Migration Aid began helping 100-200 refugees in the underpass to Keleti metro station five months ago. It has experienced soaring numbers of up to 1,500 people in recent days. |
| Speaking at the transit zone, where families use empty pizza boxes as makeshift mattresses, Lederer said the overcrowding was due to two developments: Hungary’s new policy of refusing to let migrants to even enter the station without passports and the 7,000-person bottleneck caused by Macedonia holding migrants at its border with Greece for three days, before relenting just over a week ago. | Speaking at the transit zone, where families use empty pizza boxes as makeshift mattresses, Lederer said the overcrowding was due to two developments: Hungary’s new policy of refusing to let migrants to even enter the station without passports and the 7,000-person bottleneck caused by Macedonia holding migrants at its border with Greece for three days, before relenting just over a week ago. |
| Hungary’s new police policy of denying migrants entry to Budapest station has confused many, in the light of Merkel’s recent promise that Syrian citizens could apply for asylum, irrespective of which EU country they arrived at. | Hungary’s new police policy of denying migrants entry to Budapest station has confused many, in the light of Merkel’s recent promise that Syrian citizens could apply for asylum, irrespective of which EU country they arrived at. |
| “No passport, no train,” a police officer told Syrians Qais, 20, and Amraz, 15, at the station gates. | “No passport, no train,” a police officer told Syrians Qais, 20, and Amraz, 15, at the station gates. |
| “We posted our passports to Germany, and the Hungarian government told us we can travel with this,” Qais said, holding up travel authorisation documents given to them at a police station in Szeged, near Hungary’s border with Serbia. “We left Mayadin because Syrian army jets destroyed our house,” he said. The war has scattered his family across the globe: one of his brothers moved to Egypt, another to Russia. “We were planning to travel to my uncle, who has been living in Dortmund for a year,” Qais added. | “We posted our passports to Germany, and the Hungarian government told us we can travel with this,” Qais said, holding up travel authorisation documents given to them at a police station in Szeged, near Hungary’s border with Serbia. “We left Mayadin because Syrian army jets destroyed our house,” he said. The war has scattered his family across the globe: one of his brothers moved to Egypt, another to Russia. “We were planning to travel to my uncle, who has been living in Dortmund for a year,” Qais added. |
| “I haven’t slept for three days. Can you help us?” Amraz said. | “I haven’t slept for three days. Can you help us?” Amraz said. |
| Hungary’s dominant party Fidesz, which was plummeting in the polls in a quagmire of corruption scandals earlier in the year, has adopted a hardline policy against migrants in recent months. These moves have included a billboard campaign that warned migrants “if you come to Hungary, do not take the jobs of Hungarians”, a “national consultation” questionnaire that international organisations have condemned as a xenophobic push poll, and the construction of the fence. | Hungary’s dominant party Fidesz, which was plummeting in the polls in a quagmire of corruption scandals earlier in the year, has adopted a hardline policy against migrants in recent months. These moves have included a billboard campaign that warned migrants “if you come to Hungary, do not take the jobs of Hungarians”, a “national consultation” questionnaire that international organisations have condemned as a xenophobic push poll, and the construction of the fence. |
| However the fence has not stopped the flow of people, many of whom have walked thousands of miles by the time they reach it. | However the fence has not stopped the flow of people, many of whom have walked thousands of miles by the time they reach it. |
| Amer, a 28-year-old former business development manager from Aleppo, told the Guardian that “a four-year-old blind child cut two veins while crossing the fence last week”. | Amer, a 28-year-old former business development manager from Aleppo, told the Guardian that “a four-year-old blind child cut two veins while crossing the fence last week”. |
| This week Hungary’s Fidesz party will pass a regulation under which the police will be allowed to enter any private home without a warrant if the presence of illegal migrants is suspected. Illegal crossing of the border will meanwhile become a criminal offence punishable by immediate expulsion and, in repeat cases, incarceration of up to five years. | This week Hungary’s Fidesz party will pass a regulation under which the police will be allowed to enter any private home without a warrant if the presence of illegal migrants is suspected. Illegal crossing of the border will meanwhile become a criminal offence punishable by immediate expulsion and, in repeat cases, incarceration of up to five years. |
| Migrants will be held in “closed transit zones” within 60 metres of the border, while their applications are ruled on within eight days. Fidesz has also said it will move the migrant zone at Keleti to a less central location in two weeks. | Migrants will be held in “closed transit zones” within 60 metres of the border, while their applications are ruled on within eight days. Fidesz has also said it will move the migrant zone at Keleti to a less central location in two weeks. |