Refugees lie down on railway tracks in Hungary in protest

A refugee couple, with the woman clutching a baby in her arms, lie down on railway tracks in Hungary in protest after Hungarian officials prevented their train from leaving for Western Europe.

The incident took place on Thursday after the train stopped at Bicske near one of Hungary's four main camps. Several hundred other refugees, who had likewise boarded the train in Budapest's Keleti station in hopes of heading for western destinations, protested by refusing to come off.

Many angrily protested, shouting "Germany! Germany!" and holding placards saying "Help" and "SOS."

Earlier in the day, more than 1,000 stormed into the station when police opened it to refugees after two days. The decision came after several thousand boarded trains to Austria and Germany on Monday.

'German problem'

Also on Thursday, Hungary's anti-immigrant Prime Minister Viktor Orban shrugged off responsibility by saying the refugee "problem is not a European problem, the problem is a German problem, nobody would like to stay in Hungary." "All of them would like to go to Germany."

The leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's parliamentary caucus, Volker Kauder, hit back by saying caring for hundreds of thousands of migrants is the task of all of the European Union, not just of Germany and demanding that Budapest register and process refugees, not let them pass unchecked.

The United Nations estimates 300,000 people have left the Middle East and Africa for Europe this year, but 2,500 have died in the attempt, the majority during dangerous voyages across the Mediterranean in rickety boats.

Sending shock waves through the continent was the grisly discovery last month of the decomposing bodies of over 70 refugees in an abandoned truck in Austria.

The truck was found in Austria’s eastern city of Eisenstadt near the border with Hungary Thursday, with Austrian police officials saying the victims were most likely Syrian refugees fleeing the deadly crisis in their homeland.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called late last month for governments to step up their response, saying he had been “horrified and heartbroken” at the recent deaths.

'US to blame'

Speaking to Press TV, author and investigative journalist Dave Lindorff said the US bears "primary responsibility" for the crisis.

“It seems absolutely clear that the refugee crisis, which is coming from Syria, from Libya and also from Iraq is all a consequence of US policies to disrupt and destabilize the regimes in all three of those countries and overthrow them."

"The US has been the sponsor of the insurgencies against the rulers in those countries," he said, adding that it would be "very very difficult" to find a solution to the crisis.

"Clearly, the only solution possible to these situations is a negotiated kind of settlement in each place with probably UN peace keepers in the interim while they get their act together and the demilitarization of these societies."

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