Thousands still travelling across Europe, as Munich welcomes 10,000 people and Pope calls for Catholics to give shelter to families

Austria warned on Sunday that it planned to close its border again to refugees and migrants as thousands of people travelled across on their way to Germany, and splits on how to handle the crisis deepened across Europe.

Pope Francis in his Sunday sermon called on every religious community across Europe to do their part to stem the humanitarian crisis by offering sanctuary to a migrant family, in stark contrast to the rhetoric of politicians such as Hungary’s Viktor Orbán who have claimed that the mostly Muslim arrivals threaten European Christianity.

Pope Francis calls on Catholics to take in refugee families Read more

He told tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square that it was not enough to tell those on the march to “life’s hope” to have courage, and called on every Catholic parish, convent, monastery and sanctuary in Europe to shelter a family.

In Munich, where more than 10,000 people have arrived over a single weekend, the mayor said he was not worrying about whether the country could afford or handle the influx, only how to make those arriving feel safe.

“Of course there are some limits responding given the space we have in Munich but that is not the question I am asking myself,” Dieter Reiter said, adding that he had been surprised by how smoothly the city had handled an influx several times larger than they had expected.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Refugees welcomed warmly in Germany – video

“Every day I am asking myself how can we accommodate these people, these refugees, how can we give them a feeling that they are safe here in Munich, here in Germany. I am not really thinking about how many people can we afford and can we take here in Munich. That is not the question.”

For a second day running, ordinary Germans turned out in force to cheer the new arrivals, handing out toys, sweets, SIM cards and other gifts. “I saw the reports on the news and wanted to help,” said Annabel Parker, who was spending her 16th birthday at the train station handing out toys.

Not everyone in Bavaria agreed, however. Some of Merkel’s partners in her conservative bloc who hail from the region accused her of “giving the wrong signal to Europe”, and said the issue will be on the agenda of a high-level coalition meeting on Sunday.

Joachim Herrmann, the regional interior minister, from the local sister party of Merkel’s Christian Democrats, accused her of pushing forward with plans to welcome refugees without asking the states that are having to handle the new arrivals, Reuters reported.

Her centre-left partners have leapt to her defence, calling the lifting of border controls “the only right thing to do” and a government spokesman stressed it was a temporary humanitarian decision. The country is the EU’s top destination for migrants and refugees, with 800,000 expected this year and more than 100,000 registered in August alone.

In Austria, however, the chancellor warned on Sunday that the country would soon close the border again to travellers without papers, after holding “intensive talks” with Merkel and a telephone call with Orbán.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Austrian volunteers set off from Vienna to help refugees marching towards the Austrian border in Hungary. Photograph: Csaba Krizsan/EPA

“We have always said this is an emergency situation in which we must act quickly and humanely,” Reuters quoted Austrian chancellor, Werner Faymann, saying. “Now we have to move step by step away from emergency measures toward normality in conformity with the law and dignity.”

Austrians organised a convoy of citizen drivers to pick up refugees from Hungary and bring them over the border on Sunday, and many who had been planning to go earlier in the week said they would defy the government if it did try to shut the crossings.

“A lot decided like us to wait … if it gets worse then we can go there again,” said 18-year-old Dora de Goederen, who with her father drove a family of four Syrians across the border on Friday, and took them to their home to wash, eat and rest, before buying them train tickets to Germany.

Several Austrians were detained that day in Hungary for making the same journey, and De Goederen said her group were briefly stopped by an Austrian police officer, but allowed to continue.

“I think I never met people so polite,” she said of the family, who had a teenage son around her age. Chatting with him she sometimes forgot that he was fleeing war and she was risking arrest to help him, she said. “We were just talking like normal teenagers, the future and what we would like to become when we are older.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Clashes erupt between refugees and police on Lesbos – video

Meanwhile, the situation has become increasingly explosive on Lesbos, one of the Greek islands on the frontline of the crisis.

Greece’s migration minister, Ioannis Mouzalas, has travelled to Lesbos after a second day of street fighting on the Aegean isle. Scenes of stone-pelting refugees engaged in hand-to-hand battle with local police have prompted the government to step up security, with two extra units of riot police sent to the island on Sunday.

'Money, now': people smugglers conduct brisk business in Hungary Read more

Amid renewed violence local officials processing newcomers on Sunday morning locked themselves in a container as refugees vented their anger over delays in registration. On Saturday police used teargas and stun grenades as about 500 Afghans attempted to board and seize a ferry heading to Athens. At least four were injured, one seriously.

Those who reach Greece have almost all been heading north through the Balkans towards Germany or other western European countries. There are still hundreds of people crossing into Hungary from Serbia each day, with little sign of the border fence the government had pledged to finish by the end of August.