But after tense stand-offs, Hungarian police officers withdrew from the station this morning, triggering chaotic scenes
The crowds stormed a stationary train in the belief they would be allowed to travel on to Austria and Germany
But Hungary's main railway operator said there would be no direct trains leaving for western Europe any time today
Hundreds of desperate migrants poured into Budapest's main railway station this morning after Hungarian police withdrew following a two-day standoff, triggering chaotic scenes.
Crowds stormed a stationary train, cramming children through open windows in the belief they might travel west to Austria and Germany. Hungary's main railway operator, however, said there would be no direct trains leaving for western Europe today.
'Attention please, on Track 8 the train does not depart. Please get off the train,' the station said over intercom.
There was no immediate word about why the police withdrew.
Over 2,000 migrants, many of them refugees from conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, had been camped in front of the Keleti Railway Terminus, closed to them by authorities saying European Union rules bar travel by those without valid documents.
Scuffles: A young migrant punches fellow refugees who try to drag him back off the train after he clambered on board
A young migrant takes a punch to face from somebody standing in the crowd below after he tried to help his friends jump the queue
Clashes: The young migrants continue to push and shove those standing behind them as they try to ensure their friends get on the train
No entry: Despite antagonising those behind him in the queue, the migrant managed to make it on to the train
Rush: Hundreds stormed a stationary train, diving through open windows in the belief they might travel west to Austria and Germany. Hungary's main railway operator, however, said there were no direct trains leaving to western Europe
Migrants rush to board trains after Budapest station reopens
The standoff has become the latest symbol of Europe's migration crisis, the continent's worst since the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.
The police withdrawal at the station coincided with the start of a special parliamentary session to debate tightening migration laws and punishment for those caught trying to breach a 3.5-metre high fence Hungary is building on its border with Serbia.
Senior ruling party lawmaker Gergely Gulyas said the amendments could be passed this week and cut the number of illegal border crossings to 'zero' by mid-September.
Hungary is a key arrival point for tens of thousands of migrants entering the European Union, with some 50,000 entering the country in August alone.
On Monday, Hungary allowed several thousand to board trains bound for Austria and Germany but the following day Keleti station was closed to anyone without an EU passport or a valid visa.
The move left around 2,000 men, women and children stranded around the station or in the underground 'transit zone', a makeshift refugee camp beneath the station where thousands have been sheltering on blankets in cramped conditions, looked after only by Hungarian volunteers.
Over the past two days there have been a number of demonstrations by several hundred of the migrants chanting 'Germany! Germany!' and tense standoffs with riot police as well as a number of scuffles.
Carried away: A migrant boy is lifted through the window off a stationary train at the crisis-hit Keleti train station in Budapest
Piling on: Despite the crush, Hungary's main railway operator said there were no direct trains leaving for western Europe today
Over 2,000 migrants, many of them refugees from conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, have been camped at Keleti Railway Terminus
Patience: Migrants wait on a platform in the hope of catching a train at the crisis-hit Keleti railway station in Budapest earlier this morning
Crush: Hundreds of desperate migrants poured into Budapest's main railway station this morning after Hungarian police withdrew following a two-day standoff, triggering chaotic scenes
Yesterday scuffles broke out between thousands of migrants and police at Keleti international train station, as Hungary called for clarification on Germany's asylum regime.
Hungary's government explained the U-turn by saying it was applying EU law after confusion caused by an easing of Germany's asylum regulations and called on Berlin's embassy to clarify the rules.
Sporadic fighting broke out between migrants yesterday, while taunts from a small group of far-right skinheads sparked some scuffles.
Earlier, tempers rose when the police suddenly moved in to clear a pathway in the 'transit zone', a makeshift underground refugee camp where thousands have been sheltering on blankets in cramped conditions, looked after only by Hungarian volunteers.
'My friends got on a train on Monday! Why the hell don't they let me go too, all of us?' 41-year-old Syrian protestor Ohlit told AFP in front of the station, furiously brandishing his ticket to Munich that he purchased Monday.
The standoff has become the latest symbol of Europe's migration crisis, the continent's worst since the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s
Migrants - including some young children - were seen piling on to the stationary train in the hope it would take them to Germany
Fighting: As they pushed and shoved to be allowed on to the train, some of the desperate migrants began fighting among themselves
Tears: A young migrant boy is seen crying as his father lifts him into the air amid the crush to board a train in Budapest
Desperate: Exhausted from a long journies and days of being blocked from the entering the station, migrants rushed to board a train
Migrants hold mock funerals as they remain stranded in Budapest
Last night human rights activists and lawyers condemned police in the Czech Republic for writing numbers on the arms of migrants after detaining them.
Officers used pens to mark 214 refugees, mostly Syrians, who were detained on a train yesterday at a border crossing from Austria and Hungary.
The measure has provoked anger because it recalls Nazi Germany's practice of writing numbers on concentration camp prisoners.
Alp Mehmet, vice-chairman of MigrationWatch, which campaigns for managed migration, told MailOnline: 'It is simply wrong and foolish.
'They are treating them in a way that could look like they are branding them or doing what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany.
'I can understand why people will be repulsed by this type of action. No one is suggesting they won't be treated well, but the sooner they stop this the better all around.'
Andrew Stroehlein, European Media Director of Human Rights Watch, tweeted a picture of an officer marking a migrant child and later wrote: 'What never stops amazing me are people who look at the Holocaust and think that it only holds lessons for Germans & Jews.'
Zuzana Candigliota, a lawyer with the Czech Human Rights League, added: 'There is no law allowing the police to mark people like this.'
AMID THE CHAOS AND DESPAIR, THE MIGRANT BABIES NAMED HOPE AND SHELTER BORN IN THE SHADOW OF BUDAPEST STATION
It is a tiny beacon of hope in what has otherwise become the epitome of human catastrophe.
Among the battered cardboard and blankets which have been strewn across the main railway station in Budapest, two tiny newborn babies lie encased in their mothers' arms, unaware of the tragedy unfolding around them.
One little girl, believed to named Sadan - which means 'The Shelter' - was born in the underpass next to Keleti station, where her mother and father are desperately waiting to board a train to find a new, safe life in Europe.
Under Shelter: This four-day-old baby girl, who has been named as Sadan - which means Shelter - was born in the underpass next to Keleti station to her refugee mother
The tiny four-day-old baby was pictured on Sky News, wrapped tightly in a white blanket as she slept soundly beside her proud parents.
Just metres away, another refugee mother was tending to her newborn baby Shems, who was born yesterday amid the devastation and chaos which has engulfed Hungary's main terminal.
The little girl - whose name means sunlight and hope - had to be delivered in the nearby dirt-ridden subway after an ambulance refused to take her mother to hospital.
Last night, the mother and the little girl were allowed to board a train to Germany where they are said to be receiving medical attention.
Keleti Railway Terminus has been closed to migrants by authorities saying EU rules bar travel by those without valid documents
Upset: A young child cries as hundreds of migrants try to board a train at the Keleti Railway Station in Budapest earlier this morning
Migrants storm into a train at Budapest's Keleti train station as Hungarian police withdrew from the gates after two days of blocking entry
Traumatising: A young child cries as hundreds of migrants try to board a train at the Keleti Railway Station in Budapest earlier today
Get back: There was no immediate word about why the police withdrew from Keleti train station in Budapest earlier this morning
Migrants struggle to board a train at the railway station in Budapest. Over 150,000 migrants have reached Hungary this year
A young child cries as hundreds of migrants try to board a train at the Keleti Railway Station in Budapest earlier this morning
Czech interior ministry spokeswoman Lucie Novakova said the move was introduced because of the increasing number of children among the refugees.
'Our goal is to prevent the children from getting lost,' she added.
The measure was used with large groups of refugees to keep record of family members, according to Katerina Rendlova, spokeswoman for a unit of the Czech police dealing with foreigners.
'We also write the code of the train they have arrived on so that we know which country we should return them to within the readmission system.'
Unlike some other EU member states, Czech authorities maintain that migrants who enter the country without first having made an asylum request should be returned to the state from which they arrived, in line with the EU's Dublin Provision.
The overwhelming majority of Czechs oppose hosting refugees, according to an August survey by local polling agency Focus in which 93 percent of respondents said they should be returned to their country of origin.
Rendlova said the refugees 'used to get the numbers on a piece of paper but they kept throwing them away'.
'They have agreed with the marking – they don't have a problem with this, they know it's in their interest.'
Over 2,000 migrants, many of them refugees from conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, had been camped in front of the Keleti Railway Terminus, closed to them by authorities saying European Union rules bar travel by those without valid documents
Smuggled: Migrants are found by police officers inside the trunk of a human trafficker's car on the M5 motorway near Budapest
A migrant who was found inside the truck of a human trafficker's car is searched by a police officer on the M5 motorway in Szatymaz
A migrant who was found inside the trunk of a human trafficker's car is searched by a police officer on the M5 motorway in Szatymaz
Migrants are found by police officers inside the trunk of a human trafficker's car on the M5 motorway southeast of Budapest this morning
The Mail UK
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