Rail Track Refugee 'Felt Death Would Be Better'

 

The father who pulled his wife and eight-month-old son on to the tracks at a Hungarian railway station has told Sky News he did it because he wished they were all dead.

Mohammad Bakkar spoke exclusively to Sky from the refugee camp where he is now being housed.
Speaking in Arabic, he claimed he had been told by the Hungarian authorities that he and his wife, Samiya, and son Husam would be separated.
"It's better for me to be dead." he said. "At that time I wanted us to be dead."
"The situation was not easy, was not humanity," he said, referring to the Hungarian authorities' treatment of the refugees.

Video: Rail Track Refugee Tells Of Agony

Mr Bakkar has travelled over land to Hungary from the Syrian capital Damascus with his wife, who is five months pregnant, and their son.
On Thursday he boarded a train in Budapest with hundreds of other refugees who believed it was going to Austria.
The train was halted in the town of Biscke where authorities tried to remove refugees to take them to a nearby holding camp.
In the commotion, Mr Bakkar's wife Samiya, with her son in her arms, pleaded with the police not to take her to the camp.

Refugees Protest

Mr Bakkar then grabbed them, pulled them onto the tracks and wrapped his arms around them.
He was pulled off by police, held to the platform and handcuffed.
Some 24 hours on, looking emotional, he said his wife was not well because of her pregnancy.
He explained that she and their son were resting inside the camp. to which the media are not allowed access.

  Refugee Journeys Across Europe

And he explained that he wanted to kill himself because the situation, he said, was so bad with the police.
Hungary is the gateway to the European Union for migrants crossing by land across Macedonia and Serbia from nations including Syria and Afghanistan.
Britain will take in "thousands more" refugees from camps on the Syrian border after the Government came under pressure to do more amid the migration crisis.
David Cameron said Britain would act with "our head and our heart" in offering sanctuary to those fleeing the country's civil war after he faced calls from the public and politicians to act.

By