The European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg have struggled to identify a unified response to the refugee crisis as thousands of people from war-torn countries continued to stream into Germany via Austria.
The last train carrying an estimated 1,000 refugees pulled into Germanyโs Munich from Austria at 1:30am local time on Sunday (23:30 GMT), bringing the total to have arrived in the Bavarian capital to about 8,000 in less than two days.
They seemed dazed by the calls of โWelcome to Munichโ, from the few dozen well-wishers remaining at around midnight, as well as by their determination to thrust chocolate bars, bananas or bread rolls into their hands.
A similar total is expected to arrive in Munich later on Sunday.
Many of the refugees said they were fleeing the civil war in Syria, while others were from Afghanistan or Iraq.
German interior ministry spokesman Harald Neymanns said Berlinโs decision to open its borders to Syrians was an exceptional case for humanitarian reasons. He said Europeโs so-called Dublin rules, which require people to apply for asylum in the first EU country they enter, had not been suspended.
โThe Dublin rules are still valid and we expect other European Union member states to stick to them,โ he said.
After days of confrontation and chaos, Hungary deployed more than 100 buses overnight to take thousands of the refugees who had streamed there from southeast Europe to the Austrian frontier. Austria said it had agreed with Germany to allow the refugees access, waiving the asylum rules.
โEvery refugee I spoke to was glad they left the horrendous experience they said they had in Hungary these past few days,โ Al Jazeeraโs Mohammed Jamjoom, reporting from the Austrian town of Nickelsdorf, said.
โPeople here were provided with clothing, blankets and tents,โ he said.
Hungary, the main entry point into Europeโs borderless Schengen zone for refugees, has taken a hard-line, vowing to seal its southern frontier with a new, high fence by September 15.
Hungarian officials have portrayed the crisis as a defence of Europeโs prosperity, identity and โChristian valuesโ against an influx of mainly Muslim refugees.
