Migrants struggle against politics, Mother Nature
ROSZKE, Hungary -- President Obama said Thursday he wants 10,000 Syrian refugees to be allowed to settle in the U.S. in the next year. That's a small fraction of the thousands pouring into Europe day after day, hoping to settle in countries like Germany, but facing enormous obstacles along the way.
On Thursday the weather turned against them too. Lashed with torrential rain the migrants were beaten back by border guards in Macedonia, and yet they kept going, wave after wave, trying to reach northern Europe before Hungary closes its border.
The Hungarian government sent more soldiers as reinforcements to the main border crossing Thursday. A lot has changed -- and it's only been about a week since we were last at the crossing.
A field that was almost empty then is now filled migrants and some people who have come to help them, despite the rain and cooler temperatures.
There are also more community groups and volunteers who've come to help, like Simone Deibler from Austria.
"It's a mess," Deibler said. "For me the worst is that there are so many families and so little children. And for the children it's really bad."
The migrants are given food, and some clean clothes, but not much direction. Josef Nicola just arrived from Syria, with 3-year-old daughter Lucilia.
Nicola told us he wants to get to Germany, but he's afraid of being herded into refugee camps where migrants get trapped.
Even as cold and rainy as it is, people are still arriving, and Europe is still struggling to come up with a cohesive answer to the crisis. Hungary has readied their soldiers; Austria has temporarily stopped its trains; Germany and Sweden are still welcoming migrants.