Police tear gas migrants at Hungary camp

Friday, September 04, 2015 - 00:53

Officers in full riot gear have used tear gas to stop angry migrants from breaking out of a Hungarian border camp . Rough Cut (no reporter narration).

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ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) Hundreds of migrants broke out of a Hungarian border camp and escaped from a stranded train on Friday (September 4) as authorities appeared to lose control, despite taking a hard line in a country that has become a flashpoint of Europe's migrant crisis. Hundreds more pushed past police barricades in the capital Budapest to set off for the western border on foot, even as Hungary tightened laws that the government said would effectively seal the southern border to migrants as of Sept. 15. Hungary has emerged as the main entry point for migrants reaching the EU by land across the Balkan peninsula, nearly all of them seeking to press on to richer and more generous countries further north and west, especially Germany. The government in Budapest says it is implementing EU rules by forcing all of the migrants to register in the first EU country they reach. Right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of Europe's most outspoken critics of mass immigration, took to the airwaves to issue caustic warnings on Friday that Europeans could become a minority on their own continent. But his government's plans for a crackdown appeared to be breaking down in the face of such large numbers headed for Germany, which has said Syrian refugees can register there regardless of where they enter the EU, suspending EU rules. More than 140,000 migrants have been recorded entering Hungary so far this year through the EU's external border with Serbia, where Orban's government is building a 3.5 metre high wall. Countless others may have entered without registering. On the border, police gave chase and halted traffic on a nearby motorway after some 300 migrants fled a crowded reception centre in Roszke near Serbia. They were eventually caught, police said, but hundreds of officers in full riot gear and clutching shields continued to guard the camp. Some migrants were directed to buses to take them to other camps in an apparent attempt to prevent over-crowding.

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