Mail Online.com :The refugee crisis deepened today as thousands of migrants continued to try and make their way into European countries. Hundreds of migrants slept on the railway tracks on the border of Greece and Macedonia last night as their desperate bid to flee their war-torn homes crept into another day.Many had bare feet and were wearing the clothes they left in as they huddled together on the sharp stones that jutted out from between the tracks.Their conditions emerged as a convoy of 140 cars departed from Vienna as part of an aid mission started by residents.Austrians today spoke of their plans to bring refugee families stuck in Hungary to their homes, with police forced to warn citizens they could end up violating laws on human trafficking.They had fled to Budapest earlier this week but were refused asylum and told they were not allowed to board trains to the west. The Hungarian authorities reversed their stance on Thursday, with ‘special’ trains laid on for the migrants after some resorted to marching the 110-miles to the Austrian border.Dozens of exhausted families arrived in Frankfurt in the early hours of this morning after fleeing war-torn Middle Eastern countries.The refugees were met by volunteers who had made up bags of groceries and collected soft drinks for them, while signs reading ‘Welcome in Frankfurt’ were scattered around the station. Well-wishers also ensured the exhausted men and women were kept warm by providing blankets and scarves as well as soft toys for young children who had undertaken the gruelling journey. One man, an Egyptian, who gave his name as Mustafa and said he had been living in Frankfurt for 20 years, was carrying an Arabic-language cardboard sign stating: ‘Warm welcome.’Lara Sabbagh, a volunteer for an organisation called Kleeblatt based near Frankfurt, acted as a translator for some of the Syrian refugees.She told bystanders: ‘They’re afraid. They say they’ve just fled from their country and their ruler.’The migrants’ late-night arrival came hours after the first 500 refugees reached Munich on ‘special’ trains from Vienna, Nickelsdorf and Salzburg yesterday after abandoning hopes of settling in Hungary. Tired: Children and adults alike were exhausted as they arrived in Frankfurt, with one father making sure his young boy stayed warm by wrapping him in a blanket as he slept on his shoulder Battling sweltering heat, some were still marching on the M1 route to Vienna on Saturday afternoon as Hungarian authorities finally laid on buses to transport those who remained.At Munich’s Hauptbahnhof railway station, migrants carried photographs of Angela Merkel and celebrated, walking off trains with their arms in the air as children wrapped themselves in European Union flags.Thousands will be registered in the country after being invited to settle following global outcry at the worsening migrant crisis. They will be housed temporarily in military barracks and training schools across the country.Migrants collapsed on the floor from exhaustion, having trekked from the Middle East, boarded trains through Central Europe and crawled under barbed wire on the southern Hungarian border. Many of the arrivals are thought to be Syrian refugees fleeing the country’s civil war and the ISIS terror group, which has carved a bloody path through the Middle East. As the influx of people continued, coastguards in Cyprus battled to save migrants still risking their lives to get to Europe. More than 100 refugees fleeing the war in Syria were saved after their boat ran into trouble overnight off the Mediterranean island, authorities said.The 114 people – including 54 women and children – had been aboard a small fishing boat about 40 nautical miles from the southern Cypriot port of Larnaca when they struck trouble.Cyprus police said they had arrested three people who had admitted to smuggling the refugees, of whom more than half were transferred to a reception camp outside Nicosia.British Chancellor George Osborne yesterday said the world must tackle the ‘evil regime’ of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and the ISIS terror group to solve the migrant crisis gripping Europe.German police expected as many as 10,000 refugees to arrive in the country yesterday and Chancellor Angela Merkel said it would not stop anyone from seeking asylum.British Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Friday that Britain is to increase its aid budget to more than £1billion, and promised to take ‘thousands’ of Syrian refugees living in refugee camps.George Osborne said the country needs to boost aid, take down people smugglers and deal with the never-ending war in Syria to stem the migrant crisis.He said: ‘You’ve got to deal with the problem at source, which is this evil Assad regime and the ISIL (Islamic State) terrorists, and you need a comprehensive plan for a more stable, peaceful Syria. ‘A huge challenge of course, but you can’t just let that crisis fester. We’ve got to get engaged in that.’We must offer asylum to those who are genuinely fleeing persecution. Countries like Britain always have, we are one of the founders of the asylum system. We will take, as the prime minister said, thousands more.’Austria and Germany both waived the rules of their countries’ asylum systems – pushed to breaking point by the worst refugee crisis in decades – and agreed to let thousands of migrants in.’We’re happy… We’ll all go to Germany,’ said one Syrian man near the Hungarian border, while another said: ‘Hungary should be fired from the European Union. Such bad treatment.’ Osama, 23, from Syria, said: ‘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.’Hungary reversed its hard-line stance after being ‘overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of unwanted visitors’. It sent dozens of double-decker buses to pick them up from the rain-soaked M1 motorway and take them to Austria’s capital, Vienna, and also to Germany. Once they have passed through shelters on the border, the migrants will be put onto a special half-hourly bus service to Vienna and Salzburg, according to Austrian Federal Railway.Austria’s Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said the plight of migrants stranded in Hungary, now being taken into his country, was a wake up call for Europe.He said: ‘This has to be an eye opener how messed up the situation in Europe is now. I hope that this serves as a wake up call that (the situation) cannot continue.’ The chief of staff to Hungary’s prime minister, Janos Lazar, said the ‘surprise’ mass migration was ruining rail services and causing massive traffic jams. The migrants set out from Keleti railway station in Budapest after Hungarian authorities blocked them from boarding western-bound trains. In chaotic scenes on Friday night, thousands chanting ‘Germany! Germany!’ streamed down the main highway from Budapest to Vienna while others sprinted onto railway tracks in Bicske.A 51-year-old Pakistani man collapsed around 800m from the station and died after he stumbled as he tried to flee riot police and hit his head on the tracks. European leaders are in talks to create an EU-wide ‘border protection force’ to deal with the refugee crisis, the Independent has reported.Under the plans being discussed, the EU – not the member state – would be responsible for deporting ‘economic migrants’. The Commission will also create a list of so-called ‘safe countries of origin’ and migrants from these nations would be returned home because the EU considers them stable enough. The list is expected to include all the Balkan States, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Senegal and a number of other African countries.In many cases, the migrants and refugees arriving in Europe – some from the embattled nation of Syria – have spent months in Turkish refugee camps. They have taken perilous journeys by boat, train and foot through Greece and the Balkans – and crawled under barbed wire on Hungary’s southern border – to create a new life in Europe.The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warned the 28-member EU faced a ‘defining moment’ and called for the mandatory resettlement of 200,000 refugees by EU states.
