REUTERS Thousands of migrants have been streaming into Germany

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The nation's embattled leader made the announcement as Europe's migrant crisis raged on unchecked today, with thousands more people continuing to stream into Germany in search of a better life. Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said he had come to the decision following "intensive talks" with Germany's Angela Merkel and Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban. The announcement came as huge columns of migrants who had been trapped in and around Budapest continued their journeys northwards after panicked Hungarian ministers opened the floodgates to western Europe. Authorities in southern Germany were braced for an influx of 12,000 asylum seekers over the course of the weekend after Hungary started laying on buses to take migrants across the border to Austria. Hundreds more camped out on railway lines on the border between Greece and Macedonia as their desperate bid to make the very same journey stalled. Curled up on the sleepers still wearing the clothes they left home in, they caught a few hours sleep before resuming their efforts to make it across the frontier and one step closer to Germany.

REUTERS Migrants have been sleeping on train tracks at the Macedonian border

REUTERS Thousands of migrants are trying to continue their journeys northwards to Germany

REUTERS Many of the migrants will head on to Hungary, Austria and then Germany

Macedonia has see-sawed between brutally enforcing its southern border and opening it up to allow migrants through in a microcosm of the indecision which has gripped Europe's leaders. Austria had effectively suspended its border controls in order to allow thousands of migrants to make their way through its lands into Germany. But tonight Mr Faymann announced that checks would have to be reimposed, saying: "We have always said this is an emergency situation in which we must act quickly and humanely. We have helped more than 12,000 people in an acute situation. Now we have to move step by step away from emergency measures towards normality, in conformity with the law and dignity." Germany and Austria's ties with Hungary have become increasingly strained in recent days after the two countries decided to throw open their borders to migrants. That prompted a huge influx of people into Budapest, with Hungarian officials initially preventing them from boarding Germany-bound trains before relenting and laying on extra services to the Austrian border.

The paralysis gripping Europe's leaders means it is largely volunteers now taking centre stage. Today a convoy of around 140 cars and vans left the Austrian capital Vienna to collect exhausted migrants who had set out to walk from Budapest to the Austrian border. Onlookers clapped and chanted, "Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here," as volunteers loaded their vehicles with food, water and soft toys. A huge column of migrants set off on the perilous 110-mile trek after Hungarian authorities banned them from boarding trains to western Europe, a move which provoked angry scenes at Budapest's central station. However, overwhelmed by the sheer numbers descending on the capital the country's ministers performed a U-turn, laying on buses and trains to transport asylum seekers onwards to Austria. Volunteers handed out food and supplies at Budapest's Keleti station, where managers have put up signs in Arabic telling people where to catch the next train to Austria. The EU is deeply divided over how to cope with the influx of people from the Middle East, Africa and Asia, testing the principle of solidarity. The Schengen agreement looks close to collapse, whilst bitter divisions have opened up between members states over who should take responsibility for housing the vast numbers of migrants. Germany has said it will put up 800,000 refugees but other states, including Britain, have argued that the focus should be on tackling the violence in the Middle East that has caused them to flee their homes.

REUTERS A migrant holds up a picture of Angela Merkel in thanks

REUTERS Germany has pledged to take in all refugees from Syria

David Cameron today announced plans to take in 15,000 refugees from Syria after enduring intense criticism of his handling of the crisis. He is also thought to be plotting extending air strikes against Islamic State (ISIS) into Syria, with the Government arguing that a "comprehensive plan" is now needed to stop the flow of refugees headed for Europe. Meanwhile, Pope Francis called for every European parish and religious community to take in one migrant family each. But a poll in France's Aujourd 'hui en France newspaper showed 55 percent of French people are opposed to softening rules for migrants to access refugee status. Europe's border controls have already effectively broken down, with Germany and Austria agreeing to suspend EU rules which state that migrants should claim asylum in the first country they reach. German Interior Ministry spokesman Harald Neymanns said Berlin's decision to open its borders to Syrians was an exceptional case for humanitarian reasons. He said Europe's so-called Dublin rules, which require people to apply for asylum in the first EU country they enter, had not been suspended. But the move has raised fears that cooperation between Europe's nations is effectively falling apart, creating a policy free-for-all where each country is acting as it chooses.

In stark contrast to Germany, Hungary is racing to build a 110-mile long barbed wire fence to keep migrants out of the EU. Ministers in the embattled country have painted the crisis as a defence of Europe's prosperity, identity and "Christian values" against an influx of mainly Muslim migrants. At an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg on Saturday, the usual diplomatic conviviality unravelled as they failed to agree on any practical steps out of the crisis. Ministers are especially at odds over proposals for country-by-country quotas to take in asylum seekers. David Cameron has vowed that Britain will not participate in any quota system.

REUTERS Hungary has taken a more hardline stance towards the influx of migrants

REUTERS A migrant from Syria carries a child on his shoulders after crossing into Hungary from the border wi

The flow of people risking the dangerous journey on flimsy boats across the Mediterranean, and baton-wielding police on Balkan borders, shows no sign of abating. On the Greek Island of Lesbos, about 500 Afghans protesting at lengthy identification procedures scuffled with Greek police in the main port. A Greek ferry took 1,744 migrants and refugees to Athens from Lesbos today and another one with 2,500 migrants on board is expected later today. A record 50,000 people hit Greek shores in July alone, and were ferried from islands unable to cope to the mainland by a government in financial crisis and keen to dispatch them into Macedonia, from where they enter Serbia and then Hungary. The migrant influx is fuelling a booming smugglers' trade, with more than 30,000 traffickers raking in thousands of pounds off the back of their misery. However, more than 2,000 have died at sea so far this year, drowning after being crammed aboard rickety boats setting off from Turkey and Libya.