Mouti and his friend Fadi, an auditor, have come from Deir Ezzor, a town contested by Islamic State and the Syrian regime. "Both of them are bombing each other," he says, "and we were stuck in the middle."

Twenty-five days later, they have arrived in the EU - but it doesn't feel much better. They are surrounded by a line of policemen and their eight children are getting sick. Fadi's brood includes an eight-month-old son, and two boys aged four and five. They all have colds after being forced to stay here overnight.

"We're coming from Daesh," says Fadi, using the pejorative Arab term for Isis, "and this is how Europe treats us?"

To underline the point, a group of protesting refugees have held up a sign that reads "Daesh = Hungary", and some of them are chanting: "Freedom". It's just like the situation in Syria, smiles Shoukry, a steelworker from Aleppo. Even in such a depressing situation, there is time for a bit of gallows humour.

The misery of refugees is usually hidden comfortably behind the barbed wire of refugee camps (not just in Hungary – everywhere). The situation at Keleti got critical because local commuters and all the Western tourists arriving by train could see the misery. Now it is exposed again because of the continued lack of proper preparation to handle the refugee masses (a new camp was opened two days ago near Röszke and it was filled up real quick, as it was for 1,000 only, hence the authorities' inability to take these people anywhere). Now that the cold season arrived, I fear there will be preventable deaths due to lung diseases...

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}