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Migrants rush into Germany on trains

Travelers cheer end to visa checks; Hungary targets flow from Serbia

Migrants were greeted by Hungarian police after crossing the border from Serbia on Sunday.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

HEGYESHALOM, Hungary — Hungarian police stood by as thousands of migrants hopped cross-border trains Sunday into Austria, taking advantage of Hungary’s surprise decision to stop screening international train travelers for travel visas.

The visa requirement was a get-tough measure that Hungary had launched only days before to block the migrants’ path to possible asylum in Western Europe.

Fourteen trains from Hungary’s capital of Budapest arrived at the Hegyeshalom station near the Austrian border Sunday, disgorging migrants onto the platform. Police didn’t check documents as passengers, mostly migrants, walked a few yards to waiting Austria-bound trains, which typically left less than 3 minutes later.

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Austrian police said more than 13,000 migrants have passed through their country to Germany over the past two days, far more than expected.

Arabs, Asians, and Africans who often have spent weeks traveling through Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans to reach Hungary, a popular back door into the European Union, found to their surprise they were permitted Sunday to buy tickets to take them all the way into Austria and Germany. Hungary had insisted last week they would no longer be allowed to do this.

Ticket sellers at Budapest’s Keleti station merely rolled their eyes when asked why they were selling Vienna tickets to migrants. Several migrants said they had expected to be rejected but easily bought international tickets to Vienna without visa checks.

“No check, no problem,” said Reza Wafai, a 19-year-old from Bamiyan, Afghanistan, who hopes to join relatives in Dortmund, Germany. He displayed his just-purchased ticket to Vienna costing about $30. He was traveling without a passport, carrying only a black-and-white Hungarian asylum seeker ID.

EU rules stipulate asylum seekers should seek refuge in their initial EU entry point. But virtually none of the migrants want to claim asylum in Hungary, where the government is building border defenses and trying to make it increasingly hard for asylum seekers to enter.

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Pope Francis on Sunday called on all Roman Catholics and fellow Europeans to take in people who “flee death in conflict and hunger.”

Speaking about the European migration crisis for the first time, Francis set an example for Catholic parishes, convents, and monasteries across Europe, saying the Vatican will host two refugee families and urging others to commit to sheltering at least one each.

The rapid influx has exposed tensions within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s three-party government. She met Sunday with leaders of the Christian Social Union, who are critical of her decision to welcome migrants stuck in Hungary, as well as Social Democrats, who support her move but want more help from the rest of Europe.

Migrants arrived by the thousands in Germany, by train, bus, and car. Authorities scrambled to register them and provide shelter, and at each stop, migrants received cheers, food, and toys for the children. Most Germans have been welcoming, but far-right groups have protested their arrival.

Sunday’s bigger-than-expected flow could create a challenge to the asylum support structures in Germany.

Hans Peter Doskozil, police chief of Austria’s easternmost Burgenland province, said more than 13,000 migrants have crossed from Hungary over the past two days, far more than expected, and only 90 or so formally sought asylum in Austria, with nearly all planning instead to settle in Germany.

Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said Hungary had decided to drop visa checks on train ticket customers because of the sudden drop in migrant numbers made possible by Germany and Austria’s breakthrough decision to take thousands of asylum seekers.

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The country used 104 buses to clear Budapest’s central Keleti train station and Hungary’s major motorway of more than 4,000 migrants and deliver them to the border.

“Last week the security situation was such that we had to step up in-depth checking,” Kovacs said, referring to Hungary’s effort to require suspected migrants to show valid travel visas when trying to buy train tickets. The rule effectively blocked every migrant from a cross-border train.

“Now anybody can buy a ticket again, and this is normal. Police typically do not check tickets and railways do not check visas,” Kovacs said.

Hungary is attempting to make it harder for asylum seekers to reach its territory from non-EU member Serbia. Serbia Railways said Hungarian authorities refused Sunday to permit two passenger trains to travel into Hungary, citing, for the first time, large groups of migrants aboard.

Serbia Railways said migrants refused to disembark from the train before reaching Hungary, the typical practice in recent months.

One train was canceled and its legal passengers permitted to enter Hungary by bus, while the second train entered Hungary after migrants aboard were isolated on two carriages that were decoupled and left behind, forcing the migrants to walk to the border.

The UN refugee agency says most of the migrants flooding Europe should eventually be classified as refugees, giving them special status and preventing their deportation because they would face persecution in their homeland.

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The rest are considered economic migrants, who are fleeing poverty or seeking better economic opportunities.