BUDAPEST, Hungary, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Hungary closed the Keleti train station in Budapest on Tuesday to stop migrants from traveling through the European Union, causing protests in the capital.
Trains carrying thousands of migrants from Hungary arrived in Vienna, Austria, and Munich, Germany, before the train station closed. About 3,650 migrants arrived Veinna on Monday and 1,400 arrived in Munich by Tuesday.
Hungarian officials said the Keleti station in Budapest was closed to restore order and enforce EU rules on migrant distribution and registration. About 1,000 migrants outside of the Keleti station were mostly Syrian, Afghan and Eritrean asylum-seekers.
Migrants have complained about paying hundreds of euros for train tickets
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Train departures were suspended and the station was closed briefly, but it later reopened to non-migrant passengers.
Lines of police prevented migrants from entering the station's main entrance amid a chaotic scene as they attempted to board trains to Austria and Germany.
The EU rule on refugees, known as the Dublin Regulation, says asylum seekers must register in the first EU member country in which they arrived. Germany recently said it would suspend the rule for Syrian migrants who traveled to the country.
Meanwhile, a razor-wire fence along Hungary's border with Serbia was recently completed to prevent migrants from entering. The right-wing government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban will soon attempt to make crossing the border illegally a criminal offense -- punishable by up to three years' imprisonment.
"We are going to communicate to them: 'Don't come to Hungary,'" Zoltan Kovacs, Orban's chief spokesman, recently said. "Illegal border crossing is a crime. Do not attempt it, or you are going to be arrested."
Hungary has no authority to arrest migrants who are traveling illegally through the EU. The country has registered more than 140,000 migrants so far in 2015.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for the fair distribution of migrants throughout Europe, as her country is expecting to take in 800,000 migrants in 2015 -- four times more than last year.
About 107,500 migrants entered Europe in July.
