Outrage over the death of 71 refugees found suffocated in a truck along the side of a motorway that connects Vienna and Budapest has paralyzed land connections between the two countries. A 30 km back-up formed as Austrian customs officials began conducting spot checks of vehicles at the border crossing with Hungary at the Hegyeshalom border crossing. And a train filled with refugees travelling from Budapest was also reported to have been held at the border pending consultations.
Hungary has become the focus of an increasingly vitriolic debate between Western European leaders, who are seeking ways to accommodate the refugees in a coordinated manner, and leaders further east, who are taking a tough stance. Budapest’s Keleti station has been inundated with refugees and the country has completed the first phase of constructing a razor wire fence along its border with Serbia. The number of refugees detained by Hungarian officials has tripled this year to 160,000.
