Making a break for freedom: Desperate migrants try to flee baton-wielding police at holding area near Hungarian border

• Refugee fell head-first after trying to break free from a police cordon near Hungary's southern border with Serbia
• Around 400 migrants have been forced to sleep in a field while waiting to be taken to nearby registration centre
• Despite efforts of volunteers offering water and clothes, there were few amenities and area was strewn with garbage 

By Simon Tomlinson for MailOnline

Published: 03:15 EST, 8 September 2015 | Updated: 12:36 EST, 8 September 2015

This is the moment a migrant falls face-first into railway tracks after trying to break free from a police cordon near Hungary's border with Serbia.

The man was among several hundred migrants who fled a holding area near the village of Roszke today, angered at the treatment by police.

He was running from baton-wielding officers when he appeared to stumble and toppled head-first between the railway lines.

With his glasses knocked from his face, the migrant is pulled to his feet and frogmarched back by four policemen.

The migrants were part of a group of 1,500 people who had been waiting for hours at a refugee collection point near the Roszke crossing, the first stop before people are brought to a registration camp. 

Scroll down for video 

Head over heels: A migrant falls face-first between railway tracks after trying to break through a police cordon on the Hungarian border

The man was among a number of refugees who attempted to escape a holding area near Roszke today, angered at the treatment by police

The man was running from baton-wielding officers when he appeared to stumble and toppled head-first between the railway lines

Some carrying small children, they ran through fields and began following train tracks towards the town of Szeged, with police following them but not attempting to stop them. 

Hungary has made frantic and confused efforts to control the huge tide of migrants transiting the country as they try to reach Germany, leaving many trapped for days outside the border village of Roszke and furious at their treatment by Hungarian authorities.

DOzens of police circled around the migrants they managed to catch to prevent them getting any further away from the registration centre

After corralling them together they handed out bottles of water to the desperate migrants

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced fresh efforts to complete a fence to keep the refugees out.  

Despite the efforts of volunteers offering water and some clothes, there were few amenities at the border. The area was strewn with garbage and more people could be seen walking along railroad tracks in Serbia on their way to Hungary. 

Some migrants say conditions are so bad they wanted to return across the border to Serbia, but Hungarian police wouldn't let them.

Many had slept outdoors in a field in cold night temperatures and had hoped to be bused to a registration centre, but were still there hours later. 

Frustration: Tensions are building at Hungary's southern border, where some 400 migrants were being held at a collection point waiting to be taken to a fenced-in registration area nearby

Detained: With his glasses knocked from his face, the migrant is pulled to his feet and frogmarched back to the holding area by four policemen

One Syrian, who only gave his first name, Ali, said: 'We've been here for two days and the Hungarian government only brings one bus? 

'We're asking to go back to Serbia and they are not giving us this right. We're asking to go to Budapest and they are not giving us this right. Why? Why?' 

The U.N. refugee agency, meanwhile, said it is concerned about the lack of proper reception facilities in the border area and that humanitarian aid needs to be stepped up there.

Spokesman Babar Baloch said 'the border police are not trained to deal with the refugees.'

'When people come in you need to receive them properly, he added. 'There are woman and children and they are just kept in the open. 

'Temperatures are going down as well so we need to have a system where these people receive proper care.' 

Yesterday, hundreds of migrants also broke through a police line and marched against oncoming traffic on a motorway heading for Budapest. 

A family flees through a corn field after breaking out of the holding area and escaping police

Many had slept outdoors in a field in cold temperatures and had hoped to be bused to a registration centre, but were still there hours later

Anger: Migrants try to escape a holding area where they have been left to sleep out in a field while waiting to be moved to a registration centre

Hungary has made frantic and confused efforts to control the huge tide of migrants transiting the country as they try to reach Germany, leaving many trapped for days outside the border village of Roszke and furious at their treatment by Hungarian authorities

Dash for freedom: Migrants run from police through a field as they escape from a collection point in Roszke village, Hungary

The U.N. refugee agency said it is concerned about the lack of proper reception facilities in the border area and that humanitarian aid needs to be stepped up there

Tempers fray: Migrants are angry at having to wait for hours in the open for buses to take them to a registration centre

A group of around 200 refugees walked some nine miles along the M5 motorway – and even set up camp for the night on the road – before police negotiators persuaded some to board buses to take them back to a nearby registration centre.

The migrants were part of a 1,000-strong crowd who had earlier pushed past a police line at a refugee collection point at Roszke – the first stop before people are brought in for registration. 

Meanwhile, fresh clashes erupted between police and migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos last night, which authorities said was 'on the verge of explosion', as Britain and France pledged to accept tens of thousands more refugees from the record influx.

Evangelos Meimarakis, leader of Greece's hard-right New Democracy party which could return to power this month, said the country should strengthen its borders so as not to send 'the message that 'it's good over here, come over'.'    

In Hungary, police earlier closed a section of the motorway near Roszke, close to the Serbian border, after the group climbed over a barrier and onto the motorway, which leads to the capital. 

Clashes broke out between police and migrants, sick of the long delays at the overcrowded holding centres, with officers using pepper spray on some of the crowd.

There were scuffles throughout Monday as migrants chanting 'Freedom!' protested at having to wait for hours in the open for buses to take them for registration. 

Some 300 migrants had escaped from the camp earlier, forcing the authorities to close the main border crossing with Serbia for around an hour, although they were later caught by police.

Around 167,000 migrants have entered Hungary illegally so far this year, with most crossing the border around the Roszke area.

A Hungarian policeman attempts to stop a migrant boy carrying a baby from running from a collection point in Roszke village, Hungary

Some carrying small children, they ran through fields and began following train tracks towards the town of Szeged, with police following them but not attempting to stop them

Migrants who had crossed the Serbian border into Hungary fight to get on a bus taking people to a refugee camp in Morahalom, Hungary

A migrant girl looks through a bus window in front of a temporary holding centre for asylum seekers in Roszke, southern Hungary

Last Friday, among a raft of anti-migrant laws approved, Hungary's parliament voted to criminalise illegal border crossing, with the ruling expected to come into force September 15.  

At Budapest's Keleti train station, migrants were being allowed to board trains bound for Austria and Germany. In many cases, they were segregated from other passengers and told they could only enter certain carriages.

The queue of people waiting to board a train to the West was backing up, with about 300 people waiting for the next train Tuesday afternoon.

Almost all of those passing through Hungary are hoping to reach Germany or other Western European countries with generous welfare benefits and open asylum regulations. 

Almost none wish to remain in Hungary, which is seen as unwelcoming to asylum-seekers and which does not have the same economic opportunities as much richer Germany.

Around the EU, debate continued over what each country should do. Hungary and other former east bloc countries have resisted accepting refugees, but Germany has thrown its weight behind a scheme to set a quota for each of the 28 EU nations.  

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann said countries opposed to taking in refugees under an EU-wide quota system should suffer financial penalties.

In Geneva, U.N. official Peter Sutherland said it's 'not enough' for countries like the United States and wealthy Persian Gulf states to give money to help Syrian refugees - they must take them in, too.

'Buying your way out of this is not satisfactory,' Sutherland said, adding that U.N. agencies are well short of their funding needs for meeting the crisis. 

Exodus: Hungarian police escort hundreds of migrants who broke out of a holding centre near Roszke, Hungary and marched on a motorway

Wave of anger: A group of around 200 refugee walked some nine miles along the M5 motorway before police negotiators persuaded them to board buses to take them back to a nearby registration camp

Road to freedom: The migrants were part of a 1,000-strong crowd who had earlier pushed past a police line at a refugee collection point at Roszke – the first stop before people are brought to the registration camp

Some 7,000 migrants arrived in Vienna between early Monday and early Tuesday and 'almost all of them continued on to Germany,' an Austrian police spokesman, Patrick Maierhofer, said.

After a stand-off with Hungarian authorities last week that saw thousands of migrants trapped at Keleti and elsewhere, the travelers were greatly relieved when Germany opened its doors to them over the weekend.

Nada Mahmod, a 30-year-old from Syria, delayed her departure from Hungary because she became separated from her 14-year-old son, Mohammad Diar. Her agony ended happily with a reunion, and they boarded a train to the West.

'We lost him in the forest. He went with another group,' she told The Associated Press in desperation before the boy was located. 'Police in Hungary don't help. Everybody else helps. Not the police.'

Poland, the largest of the eastern members, has so far agreed to accept 2,000 refugees and has been widely criticized for lacking solidarity with Germany, which has said it expects to take in 800,000 asylum-seekers this year and is able to absorb half a million per year for a few years.

Poland's defense minister and deputy prime minister, Tomasz Siemoniak, on Tuesday faulted other European nations for lacking a thought-out strategy to handle the crisis and for pushing for EU states to accept quotas of refugees.

He called that a 'road to nowhere' which would only encourage more people to come. He also said that Germany should not feel it has the right to teach Poland about solidarity.

'I think that our position is filled with solidarity and with the vision that we will not solve the problem with such summary, hasty decisions,' Siemoniak said. 

A migrant family is driven off the road by baton-wielding police officers on the M5 highway near Roszke village at the Hungarian-Serbian border

Tensions rising: Clashes broke out between police and migrants, sick of the long delays at the overcrowded holding centres, with officers using pepper spray on some of the crowd

Blocked off: A migrant gestures to Hungarian police officers on a motorway outside the collection point in the village of Roszke, Hungary

Setting up camp: Migrants heading for the Hungarian capital Budapest rest on the M5 speedway near Szeged, 170 kms southeast of Budapest

Making themselves at home: The group were among 1,000 migrants who broke through a police cordon and fled from the reception centre

In Greece, a dozen or so coastguards and riot police armed with batons struggled to control some 2,500 migrants on Lesbos, screaming 'Keep back' at the crowds as they surged towards a government-chartered ship bound for Athens.

Europe's borders are near breaking point as authorities struggle to cope with influx of people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, with thousands making their way across the Balkans and the Mediterranean every day. 

Lesbos, home to some 85,000 people which has seen more than 15,000 mainly Syrian migrants wash up on its shores, is one of several Greek islands struggling to cope with a wave of voyagers setting sail from the nearby Turkish coast for Western Europe.

'I stayed here eight, nine days - oh my God, I can't even remember,' said Aleddin, an engineering student who is hoping to join his brother in Germany.

'Some people have been here for 14 or 15 days. The government doesn't care.'

Hours after a Greek passenger ferry sent lifeboats to rescue 61 migrants off Lesbos, junior interior minister Yiannis Mouzalas told To Vima radio the port of 'Mytilene currently has 15,000-17,000 refugees... the situation is on the verge of explosion.' 

More than 230,000 people have landed on Greece's shores this year, mostly refugees from wars and violence in Syria, Iraq and other Middle East or Asian countries.

Migrants cross over railway tracks as they approach the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelij after arriving via Turkey and Greece

Migrants leave a refugee camp in the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija as they try to make their way further into the heart of Europe

Greek authorities have been overwhelmed by the influx and with few reception facilities set up, many refugee and migrant families have been sleeping outdoors, with minimal access to sanitation and medical care. 

Greek conservative leader Meimarakis, whose New Democracy party is running neck-and-neck with the leftist Syriza party in polls ahead of the September 20 election, said the country should strengthen its border defences. 

He said: 'As regards migrants, the borders must be better protected and Greece should not send the message that 'it's good over here, come over'.'

'Because whoever comes here, sends this message to those waiting,' he told Star channel. 

As European Union leaders stepped up efforts to tackle the region's largest migrant crisis since World War II, France said it would take 24,000 more asylum-seekers under a plan to relocate 120,000 refugees from hard-hit frontline countries.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said his country would also do more, taking in 20,000 Syrian refugees from overflowing camps near the war-torn country's borders over the next five years. 

Germany, Europe's top migrant destination, said it expected 10,000 more people to arrive on Monday after about 20,000 came at the weekend, most of them arriving on trains from Hungary via Austria to the southern city of Munich to cheering crowds.  

Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country is Europe's top refugee destination, hailed as 'breathtaking' the warm welcome given to the migrants and pledged billions more euros to house them, describing the crisis as a milestone for Germany.

'What we are experiencing now is something that will ... change our country in coming years,' she said. 'We want the change to be positive, and we believe we can accomplish that.'

Europe's top economy predicts the crisis will cost 10 billion euros ($11 billion) this year and next. Merkel said the federal government would contribute six billion euros for new shelters, extra police and language training in 2016.

Meanwhile, on the bloc's borders, the poor and desperate kept coming, both along the land corridor through Turkey and the Balkans and on overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean on journeys that have left 2,800 dead or missing this year.

Libyan coastguards said they had rescued more than 120 migrants aboard a rubber dinghy en route to Europe, adding to the 366,402 people the United Nations estimates have crossed the Mediterranean this year - around half of them Syrians. 

DENMARK PLACES ANTI-MIGRANT ADVERTS IN LEBANON NEWSPAPERS WARNING BENEFITS WILL BE CUT BY 50%

Spelling it out: An anti-migrant advert by the Danish government is seen (bottom left) in the Lebanese Alssafir newspaper warning that benefits for newly arrived refugees are being cut by 50 per cent

Denmark has placed adverts in several Lebanese newspapers warning would-be migrants about new and tighter restrictions on those seeking asylum in the country.

The adverts appeared in at least three Arabic-language newspapers and one English-language daily in Lebanon on Monday.

They caution: 'Denmark has decided to tighten the regulations concerning refugees in a number of areas.'

The adverts note that social benefits for newly-arrived refugees are being reduced 'by up to 50 per cent' and that family reunification for those with temporary residence permits is not allowed for the first year after they arrive.

It advises would-be migrants and refugees that they will be required to speak and understand Danish to obtain a permanent residency.

'All rejected asylum seekers must be returned quickly from Denmark,' it adds.

'There is a special return centre for rejected asylum seekers to ensure (they)... leave Denmark as quickly as possible.'

In Denmark, Immigration and Integration Minister Inger Stojberg, a hardliner from the right-wing Venstre party, announced the adverts on Facebook.

'Today I have, as promised, published advertisements in four Lebanese newspapers informing about the changed conditions for people who apply for asylum in Denmark,' she wrote.

She said the text would also be placed in asylum centres in Denmark in 10 different languages and spread on social media.

'The aim is to inform objectively and soberly about (Danish rules), which the government is in the process of tightening,' she added.

'In light of the huge influx to Europe these days, there is good reason for us to tighten rules and get that effectively communicated.'

Her Facebook post garnered over 5,000 likes, though some left critical comments.

'You should be ashamed,' wrote Dorthe Agertoug in the southeastern town of Koge.

'One of the greatest humanitarian catastrophes in recent times and our government's answer is to publish advertisements. It's a parody,' added Vivi Ravnskjaer Terp in the southwestern town of Vojens.

A spokeswoman for Denmark's integration ministry denied a report that five major newspapers in Turkey had refused to carry the adverts.

Denmark's minority right-wing government relies on the backing of the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party to pass legislation.

It slashed benefits for asylum seekers this month in a bid to bring down the number of refugees coming to the Scandinavian country.

The adverts were placed as several European nations opened their doors to a wave of migrants and refugees, or announced new quotas to accept those in need of asylum.

Lebanon, with a population of just four million, is hosting more than 1.1million Syrian refugees.

Some 11 million Syrians have been displaced from their homes by the conflict that began in March 2011, with four million becoming refugees. 

Turkey detained a fifth trafficking suspect over two boat sinkings last week, including one which claimed the life of three-year-old Syrian Aylan Kurdi, pictures of whose lifeless body washed up on a beach last month shocked Europe.

On Greece's border with Macedonia, tensions were running high as at least 8,000 people waited to enter the former Yugoslav republic after 2,000 made the crossing on Monday. 

EU President Donald Tusk warned the 'exodus' from war-torn hotspots could last years, making it 'so important to learn how to live with it without blaming each other'.

The 28-member EU has been riven by divisions on how to cope with the crisis, which has split the bloc between countries like Germany urging more solidarity and mainly eastern nations such as Hungary that take a hardline approach. 

En masse: Migrants wait to board the passenger ship Eleftherios Venizelos heading to the port of Piraeus at the port on the island of Lesbos

Desperate: Greece is struggling to cope with the thousands of migrants from the war in Syria making the short crossing every day from Turkey

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker is expected Wednesday to unveil a proposal that would see Germany take more than 31,000 migrants, France 24,000, and Spain almost 15,000, a European source told AFP news agency.

French President Francois Hollande warned Monday the core European ideal of open borders was at stake.

'If there is not a united policy, this mechanism will not work, it will collapse, and it will... undoubtedly be the end of Schengen,' he said, referring to the passport-free zone across much of the continent.

EU's foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini called on 'all European leaders... to take decisions that are coherent with the emotions they express'.

But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is building a fence to keep out migrants and whose parliament passed tough immigration laws last week, said quotas would be futile unless Europe's frontiers were shored up.

Orban mocked the European Union's efforts to distribute migrants through a quota system and compared Hungary to a 'black sheep' representing a voice of reason in the EU flock. 

Calling on Germany to end its'open-door' policy, he said: 'We represent the position of what the Americans call 'first things first'.

'As long as we are unable to defend Europe's external borders, it makes no sense to talk about the fate of the immigrants.' 

Other countries overseas have also stepped up their efforts to help the migrants, with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff pledging to welcome Syrians with 'open arms' and Canada's Quebec province saying it will take 3,650 this year.

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