MUNICH, Germany – The international train station in Salzburg, Austria, is the latest example of Europe’s ad hoc refugee policy.
More than two thousand migrants and refugees gathered at the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof station on Tuesday, hoping to catch a train to Germany.
That’s where we met Omid Mahmoodi.
The soft-spoken young man explained how he fled the Taliban in Afghanistan with his wife and their one-year-old son. His family curled up next to him on the train station floor. The baby slept soundly in his mother’s arms, despite the roar of the crowds and the rumble of the trains overhead.
“I came here because my baby,” Omid said. “For the future of my baby.”
He said his family wanted to travel to Norway, via Germany, to claim asylum.
Berlin announced this week it was suspending train service from Austria, after around 16,000 refugees overwhelmed Munich over the weekend.
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But on Tuesday, refugees in Austria were told that service to Germany had resumed, and a train was on its way.
Until, it wasn’t.
Austrian Peter Arp – a volunteer assisting refugees at the station – had to explain to the exhausted and frustrated crowds that no train was coming.
Germany, he said, had apparently changed its mind.
“I wish I knew. This is an exceptional situation,” Arp explained. “We will try as good as we can to help you get something to eat, to get sleep if need be.”
But some of the refugees started shouting over each other, demanding to know when a train was coming.
“Some people have been sleeping here for five days,” a Syrian refugee said. “Everybody is giving us different answers.”
And then, an hour later, the answer changed. Again.
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Without warning, an Austrian volunteer announced over a megaphone that the train had arrived after all.
Several police officers suddenly stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the anxious crowd, forming a barrier between the refugees and the stairs leading up to the train platform.
Then, slowly, the officers began to step backwards, allowing the crowds to inch forward towards the train.
As they got closer, police let some of them through; Women and children first, about a dozen at a time.
It was a kind of organised chaos, as groups waited for their turn to scramble on board.
Some cheered. Others yelled, “Thank you Germany!”
In the crowd, we found Omid Mahmoodi’s wife cradling their one-year-old.
But Omid was missing.
She told us her husband had left to get them food before the train arrived.
With tears in her eyes, she decided to board the train without him.
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