A mass of desperate refugees stranded at Budapest's main rail station for days set off on foot for the Austrian border Friday, despite mounting efforts by Hungary to crack down on a deepening crisis that is straining Europe's unity. With tensions growing across a divided EU, the human cost was underlined as the father of Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi, whose drowning on the crossing to Europe shocked the world, buried his family in their war-torn hometown.
Germany urged an end to "recriminations" as Britain said it would take in thousands more Syrian refugees - but only direct from camps, not those already in overstretched Hungary, Greece and Italy who are demanding their EU partners do more to help. Hungary has become the newest flashpoint as thousands of migrants try to get to Western Europe, particularly Germany which has said it will no longer deport Syrian refugees and will take in 800,000 people this year.
In the Hungarian capital, a crowd of migrants put at more than 1,000, including people in wheelchairs and on crutches, set off determined to get to the Austrian border some 175 kilometres (110 miles) away. "We are very happy that something is happening at last. The next stop is Austria. The children are very tired, Hungary is very bad, we have to go somehow," 23-year-old Osama from Syria told AFP.
Some flashed victory signs while others carried pictures of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who recently easing asylum rules for Syrians, as police looked on without intervening. Hungary's right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban sparked anger by saying his country did not want more Muslim migrants and warned that Europe would lose its Christian identity, as well as lashing out at Germany for failing to deal with the crisis.
Hungarian lawmakers meanwhile passed tough new anti-immigration measures, including criminalising illegal border crossing and vandalism to a razor-wire fence erected along the border with Serbia. Some 50,000 migrants arrived in Hungary last month via the western Balkans, with a record 3,300 on Thursday, according to UN figures. The Czech Republic and Slovakia on Friday separately proposed creating a rail corridor for Syrian refugees linking Hungary and Germany.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres meanwhile warned the EU faced a "defining moment" and called for the mandatory resettlement of 200,000 refugees by EU states. Some 350,00 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean so far this year, with 2,600 dying when ricketty boats supplied by ruthless people smugglers sank. Symbolising the human tragedy at the heart of the crisis, Aylan's father Abdullah Kurdi returned Friday to the Syrian border town of Kobane to lay his son to rest along with Aylan's brother and mother, who also died.
"I will have to pay the price for this the rest of my life," the devastated father told mourners, after personally carrying his sons' bodies to Kobane's Martyrs' Cemetery, where around 100 people attended the ceremony. The family were driven out of Kobane in June after fierce fighting between Kurdish militants and Islamic State militants.
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