01:14Austria: 5,000 refugees arrive at Vienna's Westbahnhof
About 5,000 refugees arrived at Vienna's Westbahnhof train station, Saturday, following a gruelling journey from Budapest, with about 1,500 remaining at the station after over 3,000 have already left, the majority heading to Germany.
Thousands of refugees set-off on foot from Budapest on Friday evening, after being refused access to westbound Hungarian trains. The group walked for hours before a convoy of buses, sent by the Hungarian government, took the refugees to the Austrian border.
Hungarian authorities had taken radical measures in early September to deal with the unprecedented numbers of people crossing their borders, many without documentation. Firstly, they closed the main station, shutting off access to trains leading to Austria, Germany and other European destinations. This led to a temporary encampment being set up around Keleti station, housing around 3,000 refugees. When the station re-opened, many boarded trains that were destined for processing and detention camps, not other countries as they thought.
Both Austria and Germany have agreed to accept the refugees coming from Hungary. "In light of the emergency situation on the Hungarian border today, and in this case, Austria and Germany have approved the continuation of the refugees' journey into their countries," Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said on Facebook earlier on Saturday morning.
01:14About 5,000 refugees arrived at Vienna's Westbahnhof train station, Saturday, following a gruelling journey from Budapest, with about 1,500 remaining at the station after over 3,000 have already left, the majority heading to Germany.
Thousands of refugees set-off on foot from Budapest on Friday evening, after being refused access to westbound Hungarian trains. The group walked for hours before a convoy of buses, sent by the Hungarian government, took the refugees to the Austrian border.
Hungarian authorities had taken radical measures in early September to deal with the unprecedented numbers of people crossing their borders, many without documentation. Firstly, they closed the main station, shutting off access to trains leading to Austria, Germany and other European destinations. This led to a temporary encampment being set up around Keleti station, housing around 3,000 refugees. When the station re-opened, many boarded trains that were destined for processing and detention camps, not other countries as they thought.
Both Austria and Germany have agreed to accept the refugees coming from Hungary. "In light of the emergency situation on the Hungarian border today, and in this case, Austria and Germany have approved the continuation of the refugees' journey into their countries," Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said on Facebook earlier on Saturday morning.