Angry Migrants Stranded In Hungary Stage Protest

Hundreds of migrants stranded in Hungary have protested outside a train station after police stopped them boarding trains to Germany for a second day.

About 3,000 people are outside Keleti station in Budapest, the Hungarian capital's main international railway station.

Many of them spent the night sleeping outside the entrance , guarded by police.

But a government spokesman said: "In the territory of the EU, illegal migrants can travel onwards only with valid documents and observing EU rules. A train ticket does not overwrite EU rules."

The ongoing rallies outside the terminal came as Italy, France and Germany signed a joint document calling for current EU rules on granting asylum to be revised - allowing for a "fair" distribution of migrants and refugees between member states.

Berlin has been especially vocal in calling for a "strong response to the crisis", as Germany is expecting to receive 800,000 asylum seekers this year.

This could prove problematic for David Cameron, as Britain has only committed to take 500 Syrian refugees.

One German politician has suggested his government's stance on the migration crisis could affect renegotiations on Britain's relationship with the EU.

Luxembourg has pledged to unveil new policies which would make it easier to distribute refugees among the 28 nations in its bloc, and Jean-Claude Juncker is set to make a "state of the union" address to the European Parliament next week.

Although the EU is committed to the principle of homing refugees who are fleeing real danger, there is no mechanism to compel member states to accept them in equal numbers.

Meanwhile, the number of Syrian refugees who are travelling to the EU via Turkey, Greece and the Balkans shows no sign of abating.

On Wednesday, pictures showed the washed-up body of a Syrian boy on a Turkish beach in Bodrum after the inflatable boat he was travelling in capsized.

Greek authorities, which have been overwhelmed by the number of migrants and refugees arriving on its shores, has asked for greater support from EU partners in processing their claims for asylum. Italy and Hungary have done the same.

Hungarian police have said they intend to reinforce their positions outside the station in Budapest as the volume of migrants arriving from Serbia continues to grow.

Officers are working with colleagues in Austria, Germany and Slovakia to search for migrants travelling illegally on Hungarian trains.

On Tuesday, police forced hundreds of migrants outside the terminal as the government temporarily suspended all rail traffic there.

It marks a U-turn for Hungary, which over the weekend started to allow migrants to travel by train to western Europe without going through asylum procedures.

The closure of the station appeared prompted in part by pressure from other EU nations trying to cope with the influx of thousands of migrants flowing through Hungary.

Trainloads of migrants arrived in Austria and Germany from Hungary on Monday as asylum rules collapsed under the strain of a wave of migration unprecedented in the EU.

More than 150,000 migrants have travelled this year to the country - the gateway to the EU for those crossing by land from nations including Syria and Afghanistan, across Macedonia and Serbia.

Army engineers have begun building a 4m-high fence along the border with non-EU member Serbia in an attempt to control the problem.

The country's foreign minister has said the government plans to register all refugees, but added economic migrants will be sent back to the state from which they entered Hungary.

The clampdown in Hungary appears to have had an immediate effect.

German police said only 50 migrants arrived on the morning trains into Munich, compared to 2,400 on Tuesday.

The border town of Rosenheim received no more than 70 migrants on Wednesday, compared to 300 the day before.