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Syrian refugees covered with dust arrive at the Trabeel border, after crossing into Jordanian territory with their families, near the north-eastern Jordanian border with Syria, and Iraq, near the town of Ruwaished, east of Amman. — Reuters

BRUSSELS.- Eastern Europe rejected migrant quotas yesterday despite German warnings over the “biggest challenge” in EU history, amid disturbing footage of refugees in Hungary being fed “like animals.”

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met counterparts from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia in Prague, but failed to convince them to accept an EU plan to distribute 160,000 refugees around the continent.

“We’re convinced that as countries we should keep control over the number of those we are able to accept,” said Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek after the meeting.

Record numbers of people, many of them fleeing war and conflict, continued to pour into Europe, with around 7 600 entering Macedonia in the last 12 hours.

Faced with the surge, Germany says that the EU plan does not go far enough, but Chancellor Angela Merkel has few options for convincing countries that refuse to take part, having already rejected punitive measures such as cutting EU subsidies.

Hungary’s response has been to send more troops to help build a four-metre fence along its southern border, and images from inside its controversial Roszke holding camp showed families being fed “like animals in a pen”, with hungry women and children caught in a scrum as police threw sandwiches at them.

“It was inhuman and it really speaks for these people that they didn’t fight over the food despite being clearly very hungry,” said Austrian volunteer Michaela Spritzendorfer, who filmed the scenes.

They raised further concerns over the treatment of refugees in Hungary, which saw record numbers of arrivals on Thursday and is set to implement harsh new laws next week that will allow it to jail migrants.

The UN’s refugee agency welcomed the EU plan to distribute refugees, but said more was needed to relieve pressure on frontline states.

“The relocation scheme can only succeed if it is accompanied by large-scale emergency reception, assistance and registration efforts in the countries most impacted by arrivals, particularly Greece, Hungary and Italy,” said spokesman William Spindler, adding that 200,000 places would be needed by the end of 2016.

Meanwhile, a Hungarian camerawoman who caused global outrage after being caught on film tripping and kicking refugees, including children, as they fled police said she had “panicked”.

“I’m not a heartless, child-kicking racist camera-person,” said Petra Laszlo, who was sacked by N1TV, an Internet-based television station close to Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party, after the footage went viral.

The numbers of migrants streaming through the Balkans into Hungary on Thursday was the highest yet recorded, many braving police truncheons and torrential rain in their desperate attempt to reach Western Europe. – AFP.