Thousands join 'refugees welcome' rallies as Hungary takes hard line

Gregg Zoroya | USA TODAY Opinion

Show Caption Hide Caption Red Cross provides food, water for migrants Hundreds of migrant and refugee families were served hot food by the Austrian Red Cross at the Austro-Hungarian border on Saturday morning. (Sept. 12)

Hungary’s hard-line prime minister highlighted stark divisions in Europe over a growing migrant crisis, telling a German newspaper in an interview published Saturday that refugees entering the continent should go back "where they came from."

Meanwhile, tens of thousands rallied Saturday on the streets of London, Madrid, Athens, Budapest, Lisbon, Warsaw, Geneva and Sweden as part of a solidarity movement supporting the refugees. Some 14,000 demonstrators assembled in Hamburg and another 30,000 gathered in Denmark, according to European media.

Germany welcomed 10,000 migrants into the country Saturday, according to the Associated Press.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in an interview with Bild, argued that rather than opening borders to a flood of largely Syrian refugees, the European Union should create a $3.4 billion aid package for Turkey and Middle East countries to improve refugee camps that are the first stop for families fleeing war.

"There is no fundamental right to a better life (in Europe), only a right to security and human dignity," Orban said.

In remarks to the German magazine Der Spiegel published Saturday, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann compared Orban's crackdown on migrants with Nazi racial policies.

"Refugees stuck in trains in the belief that they would go somewhere else entirely brings back memories of the darkest period of our continent, Faymann told the magazine. "To divide human rights by religions is intolerable."

Orban argued in his interview with Bild that large numbers of arriving Muslims threaten Europe's "Christian culture."

More than 380,000 migrants have flooded into Europe this year, according to the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR. Some 2,860 have died in the process, many drowning while being smuggled in rickety vessels across the Mediterranean. The largest share of them -- nearly 260,000 -- have crossed the Aegean Sea to Greek islands off the coast of Turkey, the UNHCR said.

Those refugees have overwhelmed Greek services on the island of Lesbos where between 50,000 and 122,000 have arrived, according to the U.N.

From there, migrants travel by train or on foot through Greece, Macedonia and Serbia, north toward Germany and the Scandinavian countries which have offered to take in hundreds of thousands of migrants. Hungary lies astride their path and in his interview with Bild, Orban complained that migrants have broken out of transit camps that authorities have established and attacked policemen.

Human Rights Watch reported "abysmal" conditions for asylum seekers and migrants held in two Hungarian detention centers in the city of Roszke near the Serbian border. People are held there for days during lengthy registration and processing efforts, the human rights group reported. Many were being confined beyond the 36-hour limit for registration purposes allowed by Hungarian law and drinking water was in short supply, the group said.

"The detainees at Roszke are held in filthy, overcrowded conditions, hungry and lacking medical care," said Peter Bouckaert, emergency director for Human Rights Watch.

Orban has warned that Hungarian enforcement measures will get tougher by Tuesday and mass arrests migrants could follow, according to European media reports. Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic have all rejected a European Commission plan for its 23 members states to establish quotas so that the influx of migrants can be more evenly distributed.

The other major gateway into Europe is from North Africa across the Mediterranean into Italy,where more than 120,000 have arrived this year, many from Eritrea, Nigera, Somalia and Sudan, as well as Syria, according to the Italian Ministry of Interior.

Orban's proposal to deal with the crisis calls for each European Union member country to pay 1% extra into the EU budget while reducing other spending by the same amount.

Aydan Ozoguz, a senior German government official responsible for immigrant issues, said that “the pace at which people are fleeing from the region is breathtaking," according to the Associated Press.

“I must say that I find what Mr. Orban is saying extremely cynical, that they’re safe there,” she said on Germany’s rbb-Inforadio. “Everyone who has been following this knows that the food rations there have been halved — one really can’t speak of safety.”

Federal police in Munich, the main point of arrival in Germany, said 1,650 people arrived there Saturday morning, according to Associated Press.

Germany is expecting 800,000 new arrivals in 2015.

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said Saturday that “Germany sees itself in a situation where we are reaching limits,” news agency dpa reported. He added that “the speed is almost more problematic than the number.”