'Exceptional response' as thousands of migrants pour into Austria

Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Bus fleet delivers 4,000 migrants to Austria Thousands of exhausted, surprised and relieved migrants reached Austria on Saturday, clambering off a fleet of Hungarian buses to find a warm welcome from charity workers offering beds and hot tea. (Sept. 5)

Thousands of migrants arrived in Austria and many more were heading there on foot Saturday as European countries broke a stalemate and began finding ways to take in the masses of humanity.

Hungary, which had spent days stopping migrants from leaving by train, provided buses to take them into Austria. The government relented under international pressure and after desperate refugees who had camped out at the Budapest train station simply began walking toward the border.

Austria opened the floodgates by announcing that "every refugee in Austria can apply for asylum." By Saturday evening, more than 7,000 asylum-seekers had surged into Austria and Germany.

"Given the challenges facing our German friends as well, all of Europe needs to wake up. (The time for) reverie is over," Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said, according to Reuters. "Now the continent of Europe is challenged. In this great challenge the entire continent has to give a unified answer. Whoever still thinks that withdrawal from the EU or a barbed wire fence around Austria will solve the problem is wrong."

The migrants are mainly from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and have endured hardships for months, often traveling overland after lengthy stays in Turkish refugee camps or crossing the Balkans after landing in Greece. Hundreds of thousands of them have fled war, persecution and economic hardship this year alone.

In jubilant scenes on the border, hundreds walked off buses and into Austria, where volunteers at a roadside Red Cross shelter offered them hot tea and handshakes of welcome. Many collapsed in exhaustion on the floor, smiles on their faces, the Associated Press reported.

Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, arriving for talks with his EU counterparts in Luxembourg, said the crisis "has to be an eye opener about how messed up the situation in Europe is now."

"I hope that this serves as a wake up call that (the situation) cannot continue," he told reporters, according to The Guardian. "Thank god, the problem could be solved yesterday evening in a humanitarian way. Anyone who believes that you can sit out this problem is wrong."

Migrants had the option of traveling onward to Germany, which also announced that it would take them in. German police said they expect to receive 10,000 migrants from Hungary on Saturday, Reuters reported.

More than 6,000 people arrived in Munich, where some Germans offered small toys to young refugees, Sky News reported. Arabic-speaking translators were also on hand to help at emergency registration centers.

The German rail company Deutsche Bahn also announced on Saturday that it would be adding extra carriages to its trains to cope with the huge influx from Hungary, Deutsche Welle reported. The company said it was also adding more staff to help the refugees to get to reception center as quickly as possible.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there is no legal limit to the number of migrants her country can receive. "As a strong, economically healthy country we have the strength to do what is necessary" and ensure every asylum seeker gets a fair hearing, she told the Funke consortium of newspapers in an interview published Saturday.

At a meeting of European foreign ministers in Luxembourg, the policy shift was almost palpable as states began bracing for a steady stream of migrants.

"This is not an emergency," said Federica Mogherini, the European Union's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. "It is an urgency that we are facing. It is not something that starts one day and ends that day."

She said the sooner that Europe accepts this "psychologically," the sooner it will find ways to effectively address the problem.

Mogherini said European countries need to work together in five key areas — protection of asylum seekers, combating human trafficking, control of borders, addressing the root causes of the refugee crisis, mainly the instability in Libya and Syria, and helping those countries outside of the EU deal with the flood of refugees across their territories.

The U.N. refugee agency welcomed the decision by Austria and Germany to receive thousands of migrants, but warned that a longterm solution is needed.

António Guterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Friday that the biggest influx of refugees into Europe in decades required a "massive common effort."

"Europe cannot go on responding to this crisis with a piecemeal or incremental approach. No country can do it alone, and no country can refuse to do its part," he said in a statement issued ahead of a key round of EU meetings on the crisis. "Exceptional circumstances require an exceptional response. Business as usual will not solve the problem."

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila sought to set an example by offering to open his spare home to refugees. He told Finnish national broadcaster YLE that he and his wife decided to make their house in Kempele, in central Finland, available to refugees. The Sipilas have not used the house since moving to Helsinki.

Sipila, whose coalition includes the EU-skeptic Finns Party that has called for tougher immigration laws, has urged Finns to refrain from xenophobic and racist comments.

“I ask everybody to stop all hate speech and concentrate on taking care of people that are fleeing from war zone, so that they feel safe and welcome here in Finland,” Sipila said.

Officials expect the number of refugees seeking asylum in Finland to reach 30,000 by the end of the year, compared to the 3,600 in 2014, the AP reported.

Contributing: Jessica Estepa