EU tensions mount as fresh migrant wave arrives in Athens

(ATHENS) - Tensions between European Union countries escalated Wednesday over how to tackle the huge influx of refugees and migrants, as thousands more arrived on the Greek mainland, hoping to push north.

At least 12 Syrian refugees drowned trying to make the perilous sea crossing from Turkey that has seen more than 160,000 people land on Greek shores this year.

Fresh protests also erupted in Hungary, a key transit point for the huge numbers of people trekking from Greece through the Balkans in search of a new life in northern Europe.

There is increasing friction between EU countries over how to tackle Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War II, with several nations now warning that the continent's "Schengen" system of borderless travel is being pushed to the limit.

Greece appealed for an "immediate" EU response to the crisis and urged the United Nations to become involved as two ships brought some 4,300 people to Athens, most of them refugees from war-torn Syria.

The government chartered the ships in a bid to relieve pressure on Lesbos, one of several Greek islands inundated by thousands crossing from Turkey in flimsy boats.

In Hungary -- a country that saw 50,000 migrants enter in August alone -- tensions rose as hundreds of mainly young men faced off with police blocking their path into Budapest's main international train station.

More than 2,000 people were prevented from boarding trains to Austria and Germany, triggering angry demonstrations.

Another group staged a sit-in at a suburban station, refusing to board a train to a Hungarian refugee camp and demanding they be allowed to travel on to Germany, which as the EU's top economy is the destination of choice for many.

"Educated, uneducated, doctors, engineers, any people, we're staying here. Until we go by train to Germany," said Mohammad, a Syrian protesting at the station.

"It's not our dream to stay here and to sleep in the streets."

- Borderless Europe threatened -

Several EU countries are now warning that the influx is placing the cherished Schengen system at risk.

Since 1995, there have been no passport controls for travel between 22 of the EU's 28 countries, plus non-EU members Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

On Wednesday, Slovakia's Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak said the Schengen zone had "de facto fallen apart" after German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned the system would be at risk if the EU could not agree a asylum policy.

"Under normal circumstances, it's difficult to get a Schengen visa, and now there are tens of thousands of people walking around here without anyone checking them," Lajcak said.

"So, do we have Schengen, or don't we?"

There is additional friction over the status of the EU's "Dublin" regulations, which say a refugee must file their asylum claim in the country where he or she first arrives.

Germany confirmed last week that it had waived those rules for Syrians.

Austria's Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner on Wednesday blasted the move, saying it had heaped pressure on countries like Hungary which are on the migrants' route to Germany.

"I have always warned against suspending the Dublin Accord without anything to replace it, as Germany announced a week ago," she told newspaper Die Presse.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, whose government has been criticised for not accommodating more Syrian refugees, also indicated Wednesday that he intended to maintain a starkly different approach from Germany's open-door policy for Syrians.

"We think that the most important thing is to bring peace and stability to that part of the world," he told the BBC. "I don't think that there is an answer that can be achieved by taking more and more refugees."

- Humanity washed ashore -

The Turkish coastguard and media said at least 12 Syrians had drowned Wednesday while trying to reach Greece.

An image of one of the victims -- a toddler whose lifeless body washed ashore near the Turkish beach resort of Bodrum -- sparked horrified reactions on social media, with the hashtag "#KiyiyaVuranInsanlik" ("humanity washed ashore") making it on of Twitter's top world trending topics.

Cash-strapped Greece announced a series of new measures to deal with the crisis following a meeting of government ministers, including moves to speed up registration and a new "coordination unit" bringing the police together with staff from the interior and health ministries.

"The resolution of the migration crisis requires an immediate response from the EU, and it should even be raised at the UN level," said Ioannis Mouzalas, deputy migration minister.

Off the Libyan coast, nearly 2,500 migrants were rescued by the Italian navy, the coastguard and boats chartered by the charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), while 55 others made it to Europe via a different route, landing on Spain's Canary Islands and its northern African territory of Ceuta.