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Thousands cross Austria-Hungary border

'We came here only to get a new life,' a lab technician from Syria told the AP, after crossing into the Austrian border town of Nickelsdorf.

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Zohra Bensemra/Reuters
Chavon (r.), a Syrian migrant from Hassaga, hugs his brother Ghibar, who has been living in France since 2009, and came to meet him near the railway station in Vienna, Austria.
  • By Editors Associated Press

| Athens

By early Sunday evening about 8,000 asylum seekers had gathered in the Austrian border town of Nickelsdorf, most of them crossing over from Hungary.

They all lined up in a town square waiting for buses to relocate them. Austrian soldiers formed a barrier around them while local officials struggled to find accommodation for them because many camps were already overcrowded.

Mahat, a lab technician from Damascus, was among those waiting.

"We came here only to get a new life," said Mahat, who didn't want to give his last name fearing repercussions by Syria's government.

The 47-year-old said he didn't care where in Europe he would end up as long as he could live in peace and find a job.

The Austrian news agency APA reported that about 15,000 migrants were expected to cross into Austria from Hungary via Nickelsdorf this weekend.

Slovenia's government says Prime Minister Miro Cerar has urged a swift all-EU response to the migrant crisis in a phone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Cerar's office says he spoke with Merkel on the phone Sunday. Cerar has said that Slovenia has the situation with migrants coming in the country from Croatia under control, but that the EU must come up with an effective solution.

The statement says Cerar has asked for "basic guidelines" to be hammered out at EU meetings in the coming days.

Authorities say about 2,500 refugees have come to Slovenia from Croatia, which said last week it was overwhelmed and must send migrants on to other countries. Migrants fleeing war and poverty in Syria, Afghanistan or other troubled nations, want to reach Western Europe.

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