As politicians argue over how to handle the worst migrant crisis since the Second World War, the body of a little boy still dressed in T-shirt and shorts washes ashore
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8:04PM BST 02 Sep 2015
The body of the little boy, still dressed in bright red t-shirt and shorts, was found lying face-down in the surf on the beach near the resort town of Bodrum, 250 miles west of the city of Antalya on Turkey’s idyllic ‘Turquoise Coast’.
As Europe’s politicians struggle to reach consensus over how best to handle the worst migrant crisis since the Second World War, the image of the dead child lit up the internet under the heading "humanity washed ashore".
The boy was among 23 migrants who Turkish naval officials said had set off in two small boats from the Bodrum peninsular in a failed attempt to reach the Greek island of Kos, where thousands of migrants have arrived in recent weeks.
He was named by Turkish state news agency as three-year-old Aylan Kurdi, who drowned along with his five-year-old brother Galip and their mother. Their father reportedly survived.
A total of five children and one woman were confirmed dead in the incident, while seven others were rescued and two reached the shore in lifejackets. Officials added that hopes of finding two other missing people alive were fading.
The deaths at Bodrum were only the most heart-breaking incident in another day of crisis along Europe’s troubled borders, with new figures from Frontex, the European border control agency, estimating that 23,000 people had arrived in Greece alone last week.
Aylan Kurdi, 3, (L) and his brother Galip, 5, who drowned along with their mother
That was a 50 per cent increase on the previous week and brought the total number of refugees to reach Greece in the first nine months of this year to 160,000 - already surpassing the total figure for last year.
Separately in Greece, two ships carrying more than 4,200 people, travelled to Piraeus port over night after leaving the island of Lesbos, another destination that has been deluged in recent weeks with migrants escaping North Africa and the war-torn Middle East.
Hungary
Meanwhile in eastern Europe, more than 2,000 migrants remained stranded outside the main railway station in Budapest after Hungarian police refused to allow them to board trains to Germany and beyond.
Syrian and Afghan refugees protest outside the Keleti railway station in Budapest, Hungary Photo: Reuters
Germany has already indicated it is willing to take larger numbers of migrants in a bid to encourage other European countries to shoulder their own share of the burden, but Hungarian officials appeared determined not set a precedent by allowing the migrants to leave Budapest.
A Hungarian government spokesman accused the German government of exacerbating the crisis by creating a “set of misunderstandings” that they would “take anyone who says they come from Syria”.
“They play with us like a football”
Mohamad, a 34-year-old father of three from Damascus
Mehmet Ali, a Syrian migrant among the several hundred demonstrating in front of a police line blocking access to Budapest’s Keleti train terminal, complained at his treatment at the hands of the Budapest police, but said he would not be deterred from trying to reach Germany.
“We will stay here to the end,” he told The Telegraph, adding that many of the migrants had been finger-printed, “no one wants to stay in Hungary. The police almost kill us.”
Conditions outside the station - designated a legally indeterminate “transit zone” by the Hungarian authorities - have become increasingly grim, with only one shower facility for approximately 2,000 people.
“They play with us like a football” said Mohamad, a 34-year-old father of three who has left his family in Damascus and had a rail ticket he hoped would get him out of Budapest, before the police intervened.
Austria
Across the border in Austria, police in Vienna rescued 24 young Afghan men from the back of a white van whose doors had been welded shut, narrowly avoiding a repeat of an incident last week when 71 migrants were found to have suffocated in the back of a lorry in a lay-by outside the city.
The lock on the door of this delivery vehicle had been welded shut
The migrants, who were all young Afghan men aged between 16 and 20 were found crammed into an almost airtight space measuring just 11 feet by 6 feet and were in “grave danger”, according to police.
The driver, a 30-year-old Romanian, fled on foot, and didn’t stop even after a warning shot was fired. He was later discovered by a police dog hiding nearby.
Czech Republic
As pressure on transit states intensified, In the Czech Republic, police were accused of evoking memories of 70 years ago after they began forcing migrants from trains on their way to Germany and writing identification numbers on their arms in ink.
Czech police were photographed writing the numbers on women and children at Breclav station, near the border with Austria. Around 200 migrants were ordered off trains arriving from Austria and Hungary on Monday night.
Most of the migrants, who were reported to be mainly Syrians, were believed to be trying to reach Germany on the trains that pass through the Czech Republic on their way to the German border.
Migrants told reporters they had bought valid tickets for the train and been allowed to board in Budapest.
Czech police backed down, announcing they would no longer prevent Syrian migrants from travelling to Germany, releasing the detainees on condition they leave the country within seven days. Alternatively, they are free to apply for asylum in the Czech Republic.
Germany
In Germany, which has unilaterally suspended the EU rules for Syrian asylum-seekers, there were signs of growing support for demands by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, for the other European nations to share the burden of migrant flows from a war-torn Middle East.
Among them, a German internet service which connects refugees and citizens willing to share their homes said it had been overwhelmed by offers of accommodation and financial support.
The Berlin-based website has helped people from countries including Syria, Somalia, and Burkina Faso, with more than 780 Germans signing up to offer assistance. So far, 26 people have been placed in private homes with 124 refugees matched overall across Germany and Austria.
Two of of the founders of “Flüchtlinge Willkommen” - Refugees Welcome - site said they had opened their own home to a 39-year-old Malian refugee while he waits for a work permit.
The set the scheme up after camps in Germany became so full that the western city of Schwerte even proposed placing 21 refugees in a Nazi-era concentration camp barracks.
Slovakia
Under the EU’s Dublin regulation, migrants are supposed to apply for asylum in the first member state, and face deportation if they travel to another. But Germany has said it will not deport Syrians fleeing the civil war in their country, and will process their applications.
The German approach has angered several smaller eastern European countries, including Slovakia and the Czech Republic, which have become routes for tens of thousands of migrants attempt to cross Europe to reach Germany, Sweden and other rich northern EU states.
Bohuslav Sobotka, the Czech prime minister, has called for a meeting with his Austrian and Slovak counterparts to discuss the migrant crisis in the region.
Brussels
As Brussels attracted mounting criticism for its apparent inaction in the face of the crisis, the European Commission tried to challenge the narrative of failure, saying Jean Claude Juncker, the Commission president had been working “day and night” on the migrant issue.
A spokesman for Mr Juncker said the Commission had tripled resources in the mediterranean since May and that the situation would have been far worse if they had not acted as they did.
In a bid to show they were gripping the crisis, the EU vice-president Frans Timmermans will lead a delegation to the Dodecanese on the Island of Kos on Friday to meet local politicians, NGOs and border force officials. They will also go to Piraeus, a major centre of migration processing.
Meanwhile EU Defence ministers met in Luxembourg to discuss moving the EU military operation in the Mediterranean into a second phase that would involve seizing trafficking vessels in international waters.
The plans came as Tory MEPs responded angrily to suggestions from Werner Faymann, the Austrian Chancellor, and allies of Angela Merkel thatBritain be denied a fair deal under its renegotiation because of its refusal to share the migrant burden.
"Austria and Germany took their own decisions to join the Schengen borderless zone. They must not now try to blame Britain or punish us for the consequences,” said Ashley Fox MEP.
Additional reporting by James Badcock in Budapest, Justin Huggler in Berlin, Matthew Holehouse in Brussels
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