Blocked from trains, refugees turn to traffickers

Budapest, Sep 2 (IANS/EFE) About $900 per person to go to Germany or at least $560 to reach the border with Austria are some of the fees that traffickers take from the hundreds of refugees stranded in Budapest who cannot hide their doubts about going to them for help.

Hungarian police prevented on Tuesday hundreds of refugees coming from conflict zones in the Middle East from boarding trains to Austria or Germany, which was allowed on Monday.

"Traffickers are here circling around, offering trips to Germany," said Mohammed Saeed, a Syrian from Latakia who left his country after an arrest warrant was issued for participating in a protest against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

"We are a group of four and we were asked for 2,500 euros ($2,800) to get to Germany. It was an offer to go as a group, individually they require about 800 euros," the 24-year-old university student explained.

"I have some friends who traveled this week and are already in Germany. It is a risk but it's the only way we have," he added while charging his phone in the portable generator of a group of volunteers.

He also claimed he has heard of smugglers who took money from refugees and then left them abandoned on a Hungarian road without reaching their destination.

"We don't have money, we have a total of about 500 euros, so we'll wait a few days. Or we will walk into Austria and from there take a train," he said.

The big risk in that way is for Hungarian police to stop them and take their fingerprints, which could hinder their application for asylum in Germany.

Despite the death by asphyxiation of 71 Syrian refugees in an abandoned truck last week on a highway in eastern Austria, Saeed believes that the role of traffickers is not all negative.

"Had it not been for the traffickers we would not have come here. If we are not allowed to travel, they are the only alternative left, that's how things are," he stressed.

So far there has not been a clear explanation of why Hungarian authorities allowed more than 3,600 people to board a train on Monday bound for Germany.

The Hungarian government argues that the current ban only meets its commitments to the Schengen area, by not allowing people from outside to access international means of transport without the necessary visa.

Hungary was the first member of the Schengen area on the Balkan route, which starts in Greece and more than 150,000 people have used to get to the Central European country so far this year.