BUDAPEST, Hungary, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- Human-rights activist are urging Hungarian authorities to take immediate action after two videos showed police officers throwing bags of food to a crush of Syrian migrants at a refugee camp.
The footage showed at least 100 migrants with arms outstretched frantically trying to grab small bags of food being lobbed in the crowd by police wearing helmets and surgical masks.
Human Rights Watch saidthe migrants, housed in two camps in Roszke near the Hungarian-Serbian border, are being held in "filthy, overcrowded conditions, hungry and lacking medical care."
"The Hungarian authorities have an obligation to ensure that migrants and asylum seekers are held in humane conditions and that their rights are respected," said Peter Bouckaert, the organization's emergency director.
Related
- Kerry: U.S. committed to taking more Syrian refugees
- 30 feared dead when migrant boat sinks off Libya
- Kerry expresses 'concern' to Russian FM Lavrov over presence in Syria
- Migrants enter Hungary in record numbers as militarized border plans move forward
- European Commission president proposes quotas to distribute 120,000 refugees
"Feeding time" for #SyrianRefugees inside Roszke 1 detention camp in #Hungary. Inhumane. https://t.co/wxxva0Qzwc pic.twitter.com/CzQhOuEbOm
— Peter Bouckaert (@bouckap) September 10, 2015
Michaela Spritzendorfer-Ehrenhauser, wife of Austrian politician Alexander Spritzendorfer, filmed the videos Wednesday while visiting the camp with the Hungarian Red Cross. She said the migrants were being treated like "animals" in the camps. Hungary has become a key entry point for many of the migrants as they make their way to other European Union countries, including Germany and Sweden.
"Most of them have been across the sea now and on the boat and through the forest and they've gone through terrible things and we, as Europe, we keep them there in camps like animals," Spritzendorfer-Ehrenhauser told the BBC. "It's really a responsibility of European politicians to open the borders now."
The video comes as Hungary's prime minister warned migrants will be arrested beginning next week if they cross the border illegally. Viktor Orban said thousands of migrants have been ignoring the country's laws.