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The international press think they have a pretty good idea...

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Sep 1st, 2015 at 05:04:40 AM EST
[ Parent ]
By "no meaningful" I meant that the railway issued a press release justifying the closure with police action, while police pushed people out of the station pointing to the closure ordered by the railway...

Indeed it seems the refugees were allowed to leave only for a day (new back-room agreement with Austria and/or Germany?). Now the station reopened, with heavy checks at the entrance, and refugees (and people thought to look like refugees...) are kept out. Especially cruel: until the morning a lot of refugees bought train tickets for big bucks, and now can't use those.

Meanwhile, the Hungarian government continues its hate campaign. One Fidesz leader suggested that the refugees bring Islamic State to Europe (yeah right, formal logic died another death: refugees from the IS bring the IS...)

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

by DoDo on Tue Sep 1st, 2015 at 06:17:36 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Are there similar controls at Kelenföld?
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Tue Sep 1st, 2015 at 06:25:58 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I haven't read of such controls, nor of a 'transit zone' there, and I haven't seen any refugees there when I boarded a train there two weeks ago. I suspect the reason is that few refugees arriving from the south or east realised that they can change trains there and got off only at the thre terminal stations (there are refugee 'transit zones' at the Budapest Nyugati and Déli, too).

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Tue Sep 1st, 2015 at 06:39:23 AM EST
[ Parent ]
While police declared that no refugees will be allowed to board the trains again, part of the stranded refugees staged a sitting strike. Here are some of their chants, translated by Arab-speakers for Index.hu:

  • Let us leave!
  • We have no problem with Hungarians, we just want to leave!
  • Greetings to the Hungarians!
  • Return our money! [meaning the price of the train tickets they weren't allowed to use]

And in English:

  • Freedom, freedom!
  • UN, help us!

This reminds me of a bizarre aspect of the closing of the station in the morning: the loudspeakers announced the closure in Hungarian only. This although announcements are trilingual (also in English and German) by default, and they found an Arab-speaker yesterday when the refugees were allowed to board.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Tue Sep 1st, 2015 at 03:45:37 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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