Last summer I travelled through Hungary to the Balkans, and some of the routes I used then are now being taken by tens of thousands of refugees headed in the opposite direction. Having frequently visited the Hungarian capital when I lived in Slovakia, I’ve seen Budapest’s Keleti pályaudvar (Eastern Railway Station) dozens of times. My first arrival there in 1991 was occasion for trepidation: I was alone, perpetually worried about pickpockets, scammers and muggers, and had hardly slept at all on the overnight train, which had also been crowded with Polish entrepreneurs carrying massive duffel bags of wares for the city’s huge flea market. As I traipsed with suitcase and backpack to the lower level, the stench of urine assaulted my nose from every nook that the dozen homeless people in sleeping bags or covered by old blankets or fully dressed lying on cardboard. They, and a lady at the ticket window, were the only souls around—until I stepped out into an atrium-like area full of people scuttling to work or changing from bus to metro. My hotel was only a couple hundred yards away, so my sufferings were quickly over.
Refugees in Budapest-Keleti Station's lower level. CNN
And they were nothing like the suffering of Syrians, Yazidi and others fleeing civil war and ISIS, who have landed in Keleti as a way station on their trek to Austria, Germany or any other country that will take them. Many of them have travelled five weeks or more without so much as a shower or a cot. With injuries from shrapnel, widowed with children. (Please see this Guardian portrait of eight such cases). Refugees camped out in Budapest-Keleti Station’s lower level.
But even more distressing to me are the responses of the Slovak and Hungarian governments, namely that their countries have homogenous Christian populations that would not absorb these predominantly Muslim immigrants. There may be some truth to that, but it seems a cop-out. There also may be truth to the argument that prosperous Gulf states would be better suited to handle them, but there may be valid counter-arguments that the cultural similarities among these Middle Eastern countries are deceptively similar.
In either event, it seems ironic that Hungary would be so reluctant to assist, even going to the extent of closing down Keleti for two days, in addition to fencing off its border with Serbia. Because the Hungarian nation itself suffered a refugee crisis in the aftermath of the failed Revolution of 1956, which was crushed by the Soviet military. As this very insightful CNN article points out, it was precisely the route from Budapest through western Hungary to the Austrian border that those refugees fled.
And that is another route I have traveled many times myself. Always, of course, in relative comfort, but it makes me feel more connected to today’s situation.
As bleak as the situation may seem, we can take heart in images of Austrians and German welcoming these Syrians and others into their countries, into their homes, and into their cars for rides from Budapest to Austria and beyond. And by German chancellor Angela Merkel’s generous response, even in the face of criticism by her own coalition members. And by Pope Francis, who on Sunday called on every Catholic parish and convent in Europe to shelter one refugee family. I hope and pray these churches will follow suit.
But even more distressing to me are the responses of the Slovak and Hungarian governments, namely that their countries have homogenous Christian populations that would not absorb these predominantly Muslim immigrants. There may be some truth to that, but it seems a cop-out. There also may be truth to the argument that prosperous Gulf states would be better suited to handle them, but there may be valid counter-arguments that the cultural similarities among these Middle Eastern countries are deceptively similar.
In either event, it seems ironic that Hungary would be so reluctant to assist, even going to the extent of closing down Keleti for two days, in addition to fencing off its border with Serbia. Because the Hungarian nation itself suffered a refugee crisis in the aftermath of the failed Revolution of 1956, which was crushed by the Soviet military. As this very insightful CNN article points out, it was precisely the route from Budapest through western Hungary to the Austrian border that those refugees fled.
And that is another route I have traveled many times myself. Always, of course, in relative comfort, but it makes me feel more connected to today’s situation.
As bleak as the situation may seem, we can take heart in images of Austrians and German welcoming these Syrians and others into their countries, into their homes, and into their cars for rides from Budapest to Austria and beyond. And by German chancellor Angela Merkel’s generous response, even in the face of criticism by her own coalition members. And by Pope Francis, who on Sunday called on every Catholic parish and convent in Europe to shelter one refugee family. I hope and pray these churches will follow suit.
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