Refugee journey: From Hungary to Vienna, tired but welcome

ROSZKE, Hungary, (Reuters) - At first sight the train looked empty, but a closer look showed it was full of sleeping migrants, exhausted after finally crossing into Hungary. They had made it just in time, before the Hungarian government shut its border with Serbia to stem the flow of tens of thousands of people into the European Union. Journalists were not allowed on the train, but I managed to get on board the next one, searching for three Syrian families I had traveled with on their journey from the Mediterranean to northern Europe. The train, old and dirty, set off after a three-hour wait, the doors between each carriage locked to prevent passengers moving around. Among the travelers - most of them single men - was Fayza, a 45-year-old Christian woman whose Muslim husband borrowed money to pay for his wife and three children to flee. "I left Iraq because I received a death threat. Either I convert to Islam or they kill me," she said. "I am tired. No one would leave their country unless they were forced to." Reaching the Austrian border at 10 p.m., the migrants walked 4 km (2 miles) in the rain to a reception center. The next morning, just as I was losing hope of finding the Syrians, I saw Malik's family from the Syrian town of Hasaka. They wanted to get to Vienna, to meet a relative who would bring money from France and help them on their onward journey. Others, who have already crossed five borders but have no family in Europe to support them, sold their last bits of jewelry to fund the final stages of their travel. "Once again we needed money. We had to sell our wives' rings to be able to pay a taxi from Belgrade to the Hungarian crossing border," said Salah, also from Hasaka. In the Austrian capital, a final surprise. Ihab, whose Syrian family I lost contact with days ago, called me. I first met Ihab on the Greek island of Lesbos, where his daughter Yasmine had cried on the beach over a dress - a gift from her grandmother - which had been thrown overboard on their journey by boat from Turkey. "I'm in Vienna and heading to Germany tomorrow," he said. "I arrived very sick at the Austria border, and I collapsed while queuing to get into a bus taking us somewhere - I can't remember where." "But later an Austrian woman chose my family among all the rest and welcomed us at her own house. We had a good shower and good sleep." Reuters photographer Zohra Bensemra is following a group of families fleeing the war in Syria and seeking a new life in Europe. This report comes from Roszke near the Hungarian border with Serbia. (Reporting Zohra Bensemra; Editing by Dominic Evans)