Standoff at Budapest train station comes as train traffic is disrupted in English Channel tunnel, migrants rescued from smugglers.

Hungarian authorities on Wednesday struggled to keep control of the tide of migrants hoping to head to Germany, as a standoff ground on at Budapest’s central train station and the overwhelmed city said it would open a new site to receive the hundreds who have converged there. Hungary—on the periphery of the European Union—has been hit particularly hard by the crisis, but there were developments around the continent. Overnight, passenger train traffic in the English Channel tunnel was disrupted for hours after migrants were spotted on the tracks near the train station in France’s Calais. Authorities in Austria and Hungary said they had rescued migrants who were being smuggled in vans. The European Union has been hard-pressed to handle the flow of desperate migrants, hampered by competing national interests and difficulty enforcing bloc-wide rules as migrants attempt to cross borders in search of better prospects in wealthier countries. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive, said Wednesday it would present proposals for a plan to share asylum seekers across the bloc before an emergency meeting on Sept. 14, a key part of what Brussels hopes will be a more coordinated response to the crisis.

Hungary has taken an especially tough tack, trying to restrict travel options for those without valid visas and enforce a European regulation that prevents migrants from seeking asylum in multiple jurisdictions. Authorities cleared out hundreds from Keleti international train station on Tuesday, sparking a protest outside the building that continued through Wednesday as hundreds of demonstrators chanted “Freedom!” and “Germany!”

“I am hungry, I am thirsty, why can’t we go to the trains?” asked one 30-year-old, who said he was from Aleppo, Syria.

At a small train station on the outskirts of Budapest, a group of migrants refused to change for a train headed in the direction of a refugee camp in Debrecen, a town in eastern Hungary, police said. They demanded to go to Germany. Some held up their children and walked along the rails in protest, police said. Budapest said Wednesday it would open a new temporary site for about 1,000 migrants at the site of a former street market some 500 meters (550 yards) from the Keleti station. The site, which is meant to supply necessities such as tents, drinking water and basic health care, is planned to replace the existing one in front of the train station and should be ready to receive people in 12 days. “The city of Budapest has no legal obligation to do anything on the migrant issue,” Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlos said. “We in all good conscience are trying to do something, most of all with the aim of protecting the dwellers of Budapest and to ease the burden weighing on the city.”

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