'A sliver of humanity': Thousands of refugees welcomed in Austria

Thousands of exhausted, elated refugees reached their dream destinations of Germany and Austria on Saturday, completing epic journeys by boat, bus, train and foot to escape war and poverty.

Before dawn, they clambered off a fleet of Hungarian buses at the Austrian border to find a warm welcome from charity workers offering beds and hot tea. Within a few more hours of rapid-fire aid, many found themselves whisked by train to the Austrian capital, Vienna, and the southern German city of Munich.

The surprise overnight effort eased immediate pressure on Hungary, which has struggled to manage the daily arrival of thousands of refugees from non-EU member Serbia. But officials warned that the migration south of Hungary still was growing, and more westward-bound travelers arrived in Budapest within hours of the mass evacuation of the capital's central rail station.

About 4,000 refugees crossed into Austria from Hungary by mid-morning, according to Austrian police spokesman Helmut Marban. Vienna city official Roman Hahslinger said 2,300 had arrived in Vienna by midday, and 1,500 had boarded trains for Salzburg.

Hungary's nationalist government had spent most of the week trying to force asylum seekers to report to government-run refugee centers, but thousands refused and demanded free passage chiefly to Germany.

After a three-day standoff with police, thousands marched west Friday from the Keleti train station along Hungary's major motorway and camped overnight in the rain by the roadside. Hundreds more broke through police lines at a train station in the western town of Bicske, where police were trying to take them to a refugee camp, and blocked the main rail line as they, too, marched west.

Austria and Germany made the breakthrough possible by announcing they would take responsibility for the mass of asylum seekers that was already on the move west or camped out in their thousands at Keleti. Hungary on Tuesday had suspended train services from that station to Austria and Germany, compounding the build-up there in a futile bid to try to make the visitors file asylum papers in Hungary.

Austrian Federal Railways said the arrivals, once they passed through hastily assembled border shelters and enjoyed refreshments, were being placed on trains to both Vienna and the western city of Salzburg and, for those who requested it, links onward to German cities.

The human rights watchdog Amnesty International welcomed the initiative to clear Hungary's stalemate.

"After endless examples of shameful treatment by governments of refugees and migrants in Europe, it is a relief to finally see a sliver of humanity. But this is far from over, both in Hungary and in Europe as a whole," said Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty's deputy director for Europe. "The pragmatic and humane approach finally applied here should become the rule, not the exception."

In Berlin, German officials said they felt it was necessary to take responsibility given Hungary's apparent inability to manage the challenge. But they emphasized that Hungary, as an EU member and first port of call for many refugees, needed to do more to ensure that new arrivals filed for asylum there rather than travel deeper into Europe.

Wire services