Refugees scuffle with Hungarian riot police at border

(Vatican Radio)  Tensions are building at Hungary's southern border with Serbia between police and migrants fleeing war and poverty. The scuffle, which injured at least one man, underscores growing frustration among refugees who try to reach more prosperous and welcoming Western nations.

Listen to Stefan Bos' report:

Desperate refugees, including women and children, tried to break free from police lines Tuesday at a collection point for migrants. Many ran into a cornfield. A small boy passed out, but was later revived with water.

There have been several scuffles with riot police around this temporary camp in the border village of Röszke, which lacks basic facilities. Some migrants say the situation is so bad that they want to return across the border to Serbia. Police using pepper spray make that difficult. Many here have slept outdoors in the field in cold night temperatures.

"We're sitting here and at night the situation is very bad," a young man said.

Those who escaped tried to march to Budapest from where they eventually hope to reach more prosperous European Nations. Some 140 Austrian and German activists arrived from Vienna with cars in recent days to pick up refugees and help them overcome the frosty reception they received in Hungary.

"I think this is my duty," said Angelika Neuwirth who participated in the private initiative dubbed "refugee convoy". 

"I am a mum, a woman from Austria. I can't close my eyes anymote. When all politics fail, we people from the streets, have to do something," she added.

Churches helping

Some churches are helping too, responding to a call by Pope Francis. In Poznan, in western Poland, people at St. Florian's Catholic parish collected 24,000 zlotys (5,600 euros; $6,300) to rent an apartment for a migrant family, news reports said. Mostly Catholic Poland has agreed to take in 2,000 migrants and already received another 200 Christians from Syria.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will unveil a plan to share more than 120,000 people fleeing conflict zones like Syria among European Union member states. Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said countries opposed to taking in refugees under the proposed EU-wide quota system should suffer financial penalties.

Faymann said it is "unacceptable that some nations, because they are not personally affected, refuse to work on a joint solution" to the influx of migrants fleeing war and poverty into the EU. His comments appeared to be aimed at countries like Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland, which oppose accepting refugees under a quota system.

Hungary's foreign minister Péter Szijjártó has condemned the threat of financial penalties as "extremely hypocritical and dishonest" as in Hungary is "fully complying" with the European Union's so called Schengen and Dublin rules that deal with borders and asylum seekers.

And Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán warned that his nation would rush to complete a four meter high fence along the more than 170 kilometer border  with Serbia, a day after his defence minister resigned apparently due to delays with the project. More than 160,000 refugees are known to have entered Hungary illegally this year alone, though most of them want to travel to more prosperous Western nations.