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Stranded migrants crowd around Budapest train station

EU scrambling to handle surges across borders

Soldiers on Wednesday blocked the border of Greece and Macedonia, which many migrants cross on the way to Hungary. valdrin xhemaj/European Pressphoto Agency

BUDAPEST — A ragged collection of thousands of weary migrants continued to grow Wednesday in the labyrinth of underground passageways outside the Keleti train station.

Hungarian authorities, saying they were merely obeying European migration regulations, continued to keep migrants out of the station, despite having allowed thousands onto westbound trains on Monday.

At the same time, the migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa, and Afghanistan — most of them hoping to reach Germany — continued to pour over the border from Serbia, despite the construction of a razor-wire fence.

So while European ministers squabbled and prepared for a series of meetings to discuss the crisis, vowing to move toward some sort of humane response, the squalid city outside Keleti grew and festered.

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“We are sleeping in trash,” said Ramadan Mustafa, 23, a chef from the Syrian city of Qamishli. “We don’t know what to do. It’s a matter of human rights. If they don’t do something about the situation, we are going to start walking.”

In stifling heat, migrants sprawled on the tile of the underground plaza connecting Keleti to the nearest subway station; along the twisting passageways beneath the broad boulevards surrounding the station and, up at ground level, on the sun-baked concrete promenade at the huge station’s main entrance. There, television trucks provided a few patches of shade and hundreds of impassive police officers guarded every door.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants have been seeking refuge in Europe, only to find themselves confronted with a patchwork of asylum policies across the 28-member European Union. At the same time, anti-immigrant sentiment, stoked by far-right political parties, is fostering a backlash in some countries, including Britain, France, and Hungary.

At Keleti Wednesday, more than 2,000 people — most of them young men and women and families — clustered together on the station’s filthy tile floor on tattered blankets. A few had small tents. Children scampered through the maze of makeshift encampments or tried to play soccer on tiny patches of unoccupied floor.

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Migrants outside the station said they did not know what to do. Even the possibility of hiring smugglers to drive them across the border had become fraught since the bodies of 71 people were found last week in the back of an abandoned truck in Austria.

“In Europe, they’re treating us like ISIS did, beating us up,” said Ahmad Saadoun, 27, from Fallujah, Iraq, referring to the Islamic State. “Either take me to Germany or just send me back. I don’t care anymore.”

At this, Saadoun started weeping. A man next to him put his arm around Saadoun’s neck and kissed his cheek.

Keleti was not Wednesday’s only flashpoint.

At least 11 migrants drowned trying to make the sea crossing from Turkey to Greece — from which they hoped to begin the arduous, overland journey through Macedonia and Serbia into Hungary.

Overnight, train service beneath the English Channel connecting France and Britain was temporarily disrupted after reports that migrants were trying to walk the route or hide atop the hurtling trains.

One of the glories of the European Union — the ability to travel freely, without border checks, from Estonia to Portugal — was splintering.

Knowing that migrants trying to get to Germany and other Western nations and unable to board at Keleti would likely try other routes, police from Hungary and adjoining nations conducted spot checks on trains, demanding documents from suspected migrants.

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Similar checks were being made on vehicles trying to cross the border between Hungary and Austria, causing huge traffic jams.

After more than 3,000 migrants succeeded in reaching Munich by train on Tuesday, only 150 arrived overnight, partly a reflection of the way the Hungarian crackdown has squeezed the human flow.

Still, German authorities expected more migrants to find ways to evade the restrictions — and even hinted that, with a possible agreement on handling the crisis in the works, some might be permitted to travel directly from Budapest in coming days.