A ride to nowhere: From crowded train station to refugee camp
BUDAPEST -- Thousands of refugees are stuck in a country that doesn't want them, but won't let them leave.
They've fled wars in Syria and Afghanistan, making it as far as Hungary. On Thursday, they thought a train would take them to Germany, but the train turned into a trap.
When the station doors opened, hundreds of desperate migrants rushed in. Cramming onto the train, children were pushed through the train windows. On board it was even more chaotic. The suffocating heat and humidity made it almost unbearable.
Nobody knew where the train was going. But everyone prayed it was Germany, where the migrants have the right to work.
"This is my lucky day," said Hassan. "Maybe it will not my lucky day (sic), but I think it's my lucky day."
It was his lucky day because he chose not to stay on that train. About 45 minutes outside of Budapest, the train stopped. Police forced the migrants off to a holding camp.
One woman begged not to be taken away. Her husband became so desperate that he grabbed her and their baby and threw himself on the tracks.
Next train out we met Azadullah Sidiqi, from Afghanistan.
"I was working with the American forces for six year (sic), you know, but my father was died (sic) by Taliban, and they said we will catch you and we will kidnap you, we will kill you," Sidiqi said.
But when the train came to the end of the line, so did his dream of reaching Germany. The Hungarian police herded him and everyone else onto buses.
Nawzat Nakisbandi, 13, from Aleppo, Syria has already survived one war. "They treat us like we are not people," she said.
Her mother Batool said more like prisoners. "We are not going to stay here," she said. "We don't want to stay here."
Nawzat said she was scared and began to cry "because they are treating us very bad."
The big difference Thursday night is the doors to the rail station in Budapest are open and migrants are allowed to travel, but word spreds fast and no one wants to end up in a refugee camp having risked so much to get this far. For now, they're staying put.