Refugee ping-pong between Austria and Hungary

Origo.hu reports how refugees who have passports and are going to Vienna are taken off the train in Budapest, while others can move along. Two are sent back, one is allowed in. A reporter of origo shared his experience of travelling with two refugees to Vienna from Bicske by train.

One of the refugees, Mohamed Droubi entered Austria illegally at the border of Hegyeshalom. He and the others paid 150 Euros to human traffickers, but the van was stopped by the police, so he – not even knowing which of the countries he is in – ran away. Only after he was sure that he was in Austria he went to the policemen and asked for a refugee status, begging them not to be sent back to the Hungarian closed camp of Nyírbátor, which was like a prison for him: he was shout at and sometimes even beaten. Eventually, they sent him to an open camp in Austria.

He and the reporter met a friend of his in Vienna, another Syrian refugee, Mohamed Farousse, with whom they have been helping each other since they met in Bicske. Farousse escaped from the military service, as after he fulfilled the obligatory service he again received a draft to fight in the civil war on the side of Assad. But he did not want to participate in the war anymore, for he had relatives living in the affected area, thus, as he did not see another option, decided to escape. Now he tries to get to a sibling of his in Germany, where he would get a job at a port, as a technician, and then would get his wife out of Syria, too. Droubi ran away from Syria because – thanks to the war – he and other people could not work anymore, and wants to take his mother and sister to Germany too.