This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/world/europe/pope-calls-on-europeans-to-house-refugees.html

The article has changed 9 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 5 Version 6
Pope Calls on All of Europe’s Catholics to House Refugees As Europe Grasps for Answers, More Migrants Flood Its Borders
(about 9 hours later)
VIENNA — Pope Francis added his voice Sunday to those of politicians and legions of volunteers welcoming refugees to Europe, calling on all Roman Catholics — and by extension all fellow Europeans — to take in people who “flee death in conflict and hunger.” HEGYESHALOM, Hungary — Throughout the day on Sunday, train after packed train arrived at this border town from Budapest, the passengers smoothly shifting to a gleaming Austrian train on the opposite side of the platform and whisking on to Vienna and beyond — 13,000 of them in the first 36 hours after Hungary allowed throngs of refugees and migrants to travel toward Germany.
He was responding for the first time, in public at least, to the mass migration of tens of thousands of people, many from Syria and Iraq, but also Afghanistan, who have been arriving in Europe in recent weeks. But that is not the end. Thousands of migrants continue to flow through the Balkans toward Hungary every day, rapidly approaching its southern border with Serbia, government officials said. Two Greek ferries carrying more than 4,000 migrants were scheduled to land Sunday in Athens, a first stop on the migrant trail through the Balkans.
Referring to the “tragedy of tens of thousands of refugees that flee death in conflict and hunger and are on a journey of hope,” Francis said, according to Vatican Radio, “the Gospel calls us to be close to the smallest and to those who have been abandoned.” He specifically asked that the European bishops support the effort. Despite cheers of welcome in Germany, and tears of relief from weary migrants, it remained unclear how Europe would deal with successive waves of migrants, which humanitarian groups have assured are on the way, perhaps for months or even years, until the wars, poverty and other underlying causes of the dislocations have abated.
Evidence suggested on Sunday that the march of migrants from Turkey and Greece, then through the Balkans and Hungary into wealthier Central Europe was unbroken. More than 10,000 people arrived in Austria en route to Germany after the two countries threw open their borders late Friday to refugees in Hungary who were either walking to Austria, or huddled in a squalid makeshift camp at a Budapest rail station, insisting on moving westward. On Sunday, Pope Francis called upon Catholic parishes and religious communities to take in the refugees, and Germany has called for a quota system to distribute the refugee population evenly throughout Europe.
On Sunday, the Hungarian authorities started what they billed as a clampdown on the influx of refugees from over the southern border with Serbia. Hundreds were gathered into what the government called reception centers but local police officers were calling a new “alien holding center,” while construction crews were putting the finishing touches on a 12-foot fence topped with razor wire spanning the entire 108-mile border. But the European Union remains deeply divided over what should be done with the refugees, a debate that has strained relations and threatened the 28-nation bloc’s proud policy of open borders.
In contrast, volunteers raced to rail stations in Austria and Germany to offer food, drink, toys and cigarettes to arriving migrants, applauding each train and emphasizing that the newcomers were welcome. Far-right politicians, mostly quiet so far, found their voice on Sunday with Marine Le Pen of France, the National Front leader, complaining that a widely dispersed photograph of a drowned child refugee from Syria that had shocked the world was being used to make Europeans “feel guilty.”
Several hundred people at Westbahnhof in Vienna encouraged migrants who had come from Hegyeshalom in Hungary to switch trains for Salzburg and on to Germany. A gathering of foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Sunday produced only more discord. More talks are scheduled for this week. Germany, which has admitted by far the largest number of migrants — it expects to accept 800,000 this year — has called upon other nations to accept more, but found much resistance, especially in Eastern Europe.
“It is such a unique feeling of closeness,” said Gioia Osthoff, an actress who turns 25 on Monday and was on her third consecutive day of helping migrants. “You give people things, they are grateful. Suddenly, a father who I don’t know was hugging me. The police, the railways, everyone is doing just the right thing.” “We have been facing this challenge for several months, and we continue to take in refugees,” said Peter Altmaier, chief of staff to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. “But we need a readiness in other European countries to join in.”
Asked why he joined the crowds at Westbahnhof, a well-known Austrian filmmaker, Franz Novotny, said simply: “Civic duty.” Human rights groups say that, for the foreseeable future, there is every reason to expect refugees from Syria and other countries in crisis to descend on Europe in ever greater numbers. In Syria alone, 11 million people have been displaced by war, seven million within the country’s borders and four million outside, mostly to Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.
In Cyprus, the authorities said on Sunday that they had rescued 114 people believed to be refugees fleeing Syria after their fishing boat issued a distress call some 46 miles off the island’s southern coast, The Associated Press reported. The number of Syrians requesting asylum in Europe had risen steadily for years before attracting international attention, reaching an estimated 348,000 since April 2011, the month after the civil war there began. The numbers are accelerating as the war worsens — from 8,000 asylum claims in 2011 to 56,000 in 2013 and 150,000 in 2014, according to United Nations figures. Those numbers reflect only asylum claims, not the far greater flow of those claiming refugee status.
Thousands of migrants continued to arrive on Lesbos and other Greek islands from Turkey. Greece ferried 1,744 migrants on Sunday from Lesbos to Athens, and a second vessel carrying as many as 2,500 migrants was expected to sail later in the day, heading north along the Balkan land route taken by tens of thousands of others in recent weeks. Another factor in the increase is the discovery of routes through Turkey and Greece that are safer and often cheaper than the old route through Libya, which involved a perilous land trek and an equally dangerous ride across the Mediterranean Sea. Human rights experts say that the combination of the new routes, an apparently welcoming Europe, deteriorating security in Syria and the higher socioeconomic status of the recent refugees virtually ensures increases in the number of migrants.
In an indication of the breadth of the migrant wave, the Egyptian Navy seized three fishing boats in the Mediterranean that were carrying 228 migrants trying to make their way to Europe, the military said on Sunday. Hungary, on the front lines of the refugee crisis and led by an anti-immigrant prime minister and governing party, has sent mixed signals on its intentions. While allowing migrants already in the country to head to the West, officials this weekend began a crackdown on fresh arrivals. Hungary opened a new holding camp with space for 1,000 people — surrounded by razor wire and guarded by dogs and the police — in the southern border town of Roszke, and rights groups quickly assailed the camp as inhumane.
Agence France-Presse reported that the military said on its Facebook page that 17 crew members were arrested during the operation off the coast of Egypt’s second city, Alexandria. Hungary is also building a razor-wire fence along its 108-mile southern border with Serbia, and it has passed harsher laws involving the treatment of refugees and penalties for helping them. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has cast it as a fight for Christian values against a Muslim surge.
In Germany, which has taken in the most refugees and expects 800,000 asylum seekers this year, volunteers were active again Sunday at the main Munich rail station and other locations across the country, welcoming the new arrivals in a determined display of hospitality that counters right-wing resistance to the newcomers. On the Austrian border on Sunday, however, cooperation between the Hungarian police and Austrian rail officials created a seamless refugee corridor through Hegyeshalom, the main crossing between Budapest and Vienna.
Chancellor Angela Merkel was to discuss the situation with her partners in her coalition government on Sunday evening. The Social Democrats back Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats in offering a determined welcome and insisting that Germany can afford to take in the expected arrivals. Magdalena Frank, a real estate agent from Vienna, squatted with a circle of volunteers on the dusty platform at the Hegyeshalom station, part of an assembly line of sandwich makers. “We are waiting for a train of refugees due in a few minutes,” she said, pushing a lock of hair out of her eyes.
But some members of the Christian Social Union, the more conservative party in Ms. Merkel’s center-right bloc, have raised objections. All around were piles of diapers, bananas, savory pies, dates and enough bottled water to fill a swimming pool. “When we heard what was happening, I contacted some friends and we decided we had to come and help,” said Barbara Secka, a mechanical engineering student from Vienna. “We all began cooking.”
Peter Altmaier, Ms. Merkel’s chief of staff, told a public broadcaster that the chancellor held talks throughout Saturday with German and European partners in an effort to get every European Union member to take in a share of refugees. When the 5 p.m. train from Budapest arrived, a half-hour late and with standing room only, more than 500 migrants poured onto the platform. “Welcome!” the volunteers shouted in English. “Have something to eat!” With stunning efficiency, the volunteers distributed the aid, moved the migrants into the adjacent train and waved goodbye as it pulled out of the station.
“We have been facing this challenge for several months and we continue to take in refugees,” Mr. Altmaier said. “But we need a readiness in other European countries to join in.” Meanwhile, a convoy of more than 100 Austrian vehicles made their way to Budapest on Sunday, vowing to offer rides to Vienna for any migrants who wanted them — and ignoring warnings from the Hungarian authorities that this violated that country’s refugee laws.
“I am convinced that the situation will normalize itself when we are able to come to a European consensus, as we did in the crisis in Ukraine, in the crisis in Greece, that is supported by all countries in Europe,” Mr. Altmaier said. Along Hungary’s border with Serbia, the scene was anything but smooth.
Austria faces a similar influx — 80,000 asylum applicants are expected this year in a country of eight million, about one-tenth the population of Germany. That prospect has bolstered far-right populists at the expense of the governing Social Democrats and conservatives, who face bellwether elections in Vienna in early October. “While Europe rejoiced in happy images from Austria and Greece yesterday, refugees crossing into Hungary right now see a very different picture: riot police and a cold, hard ground to sleep on,” Barbora Cernusakova, an Amnesty International researcher, said in a statement released by the group.
Perhaps with an eye to the coming vote, Chancellor Werner Faymann said in a statement Sunday that after helping more than 12,000 people cross from Hungary this weekend, Austria would move gradually back to normal. The new camp in Roszke was being called a “reception center” by Hungarian officials, though the police on the scene referred to it as an “alien holding center.”
“We always said this is an emergency situation which has to be treated quickly and humanely,” said Mr. Faymann, who added that he had spoken several times with Ms. Merkel and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary. Both migrants and relief groups were reporting harsh treatment and a hostile reception from the border authorities. On the Serbian side, officials temporarily blocked at least some trains headed north, amid numerous reports of the police demanding bribes to allow the migrants to pass.
A convoy of some 150 cars driven by Austrian volunteers headed toward Hungary on Sunday, with organizers saying they would pick up any refugees who wanted to go West. The police warned the drivers against exposing themselves to charges in Hungary that they were in effect smuggling people across borders. Photos on social media from the new camp showed the police with dogs guarding a desolate compound surrounded by high fences.
The mass movement has produced a sharp spike in people smuggling, with the most tragic case occurring in Austria, where 71 people were found dead in an abandoned truck southeast of Vienna on Aug. 27. Since then, officials have reported that almost 200 other people narrowly averted death in vehicles crammed with stowaways who pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for the promise of reaching Austria, Germany or other wealthy nations in Europe. Omar Hadad, 24, from Dara’a, Syria, had been at a nearby camp along the border before he was shifted on Sunday to one west of Budapest, in the town of Bicske.
Coincidentally, it was exactly 26 years ago on a first September Sunday that Hungary opened its border at Hegyeshalom to allow tens of thousands of East Germans to cross into Austria at Nickelsdorf and continue through Austria to what was then West Germany, precipitating the end of the Cold War. “The Hungarian police came into the camp and they beat me with batons,” he said of his time in the holding center near the Serbian border. He peeled off his socks to show a bruised foot and leg.
Hungary’s behavior in recent days — allowing and then barring refugees from trains into Austria, and building the fence on its southern border with Serbia to discourage migrants from entering — has come under criticism from its 27 partners in the European Union. Journalists were not allowed into the Bicske camp, but the migrants could come out or speak across the entrance gate. Several other migrants rushed toward Mr. Hadad when they saw him displaying his wounds.
Jean Asselborn, the foreign minister of Luxembourg, which now holds the rotating six-month presidency of the Council of the European Union, told German television on Sunday that Hungary and other former Communist nations in Central and Eastern Europe had gained not only rights but also shouldered responsibilities in joining the union. “Here, here, look,” said Salam Barajakly, a student from Damascus who began counting off the wounds and scars on his arms, legs and neck that he said he had gotten on the journey to Hungary, some by accident, some from the police, some from crawling under razor-wire fences.
It is important, Mr. Asselborn said, for the European Union to respond to an expected request from Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, to absorb 160,000 refugees under an agreed quota system. Two men held out smartphones showing videos of the camp where they had been held near the Serbian border. Hundreds of people squatted in the dust while the police tossed sandwiches and bottles of water to them over a barbed-wire fence.
“We must do this,” Mr. Asselborn said. “I think we are capable of that.” “Like a zoo,” Mr. Hadad said. “Like we are dogs.”
Sensitive to criticism of callousness in response to the wave of migrants, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain is prepared to accept up to 15,000 Syrian refugees, but only from camps in that region, including from Lebanon, Jordan or Turkey, officials told The Sunday Times of London. The group had arrived at the Bicske camp an hour earlier and was waiting to make the mile-and-a-quarter walk to the rail station to catch a train toward Hegyeshalom. The Hungarian guards at the camp were encouraging the migrants to go.
The British do not want to add any further incentive, or “pull factor,” that will encourage more refugees to risk the passage to Europe, nor to favor those migrants who could afford to pay people smugglers over those who are in the regional camps. With euroskeptics inside and outside Mr. Cameron’s ruling Conservative Party critical of Brussels, Britain will continue to reject the idea of mandatory quotas to distribute migrants and asylum seekers already in Europe. Confusion and lack of information were endemic, as they have been throughout the migrant crisis in Budapest. Even the various Hungarian authorities could not agree on the latest rules.
Britain will also allocate some of the financial aid it usually sends abroad to house and integrate Syrian refugees for the first year in Britain and to increase aid to refugee camps in the region, the chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said on Sunday. He refused to confirm a specific figure for the refugees. Mr. Cameron announced last week that Britain will add another $150 million to the $1.4 billion it already provides for humanitarian aid to displaced Syrians. At the Bicske station, a midafternoon train to the border was held up for 10 minutes as an angry conductor tried to throw migrants without tickets off the train.
“Off! Off!,” she shouted. “No tickets, then off!”
A group of police officers on the platform called out to her to let the migrants travel. “Don’t you know they are supposed to travel for free?” one asked.
“Says who? They need tickets,” the woman said.
Even when the chief of police told the woman to allow the migrants to travel, she resisted.
Finally, a railroad official showed up and told her to leave the migrants alone.
“Oh, so no tickets are necessary,” she said. “I guess I don’t have a reason to work anymore, do I?”
And she stormed off, taking no one’s ticket.