For Ghassan Srour, there is no turning back.
The Iraqi refugee is waiting at a train station in Budapest, alongside thousands of others hoping to pass through Hungary to start a new life in Europe. Srour says he's "stuck" there, unable to stay, unwilling to turn back, and barred from moving on to Germany, where he hopes to find work and education. In the meantime, he's afraid the Hungarian government will trick him into boarding a train to a refugee camp, or forcibly deport him.
Srour fled Iraq to escape the Islamic State, passing through Macedonia and Serbia before hitting a roadblock Hungary.
"It's a very hard adventure," he told CTV News' Paul Workman in an interview at the Keleti train station. He added that, if he had known how hard his journey would be, he might not have decided to leave home.
"We're stuck here now, unfortunately," Srour said.
Srour is part of a much larger humanitarian crisis gripping Europe at the moment, as wave after wave of refugees flee the war-torn Middle East. They swarm across borders, overburden boats and pack onto trains in hopes of getting to relative safety in such countries as Sweden or Germany.
Srour says Hungary is not a viable end-point for his journey, and he's not looking for anything from the country except safe passage.
"We don't want their help. We are just wanting to cross the borders – we don't want to live here," he said. "They cannot support us."
Srour is now wary of boarding the next train at the station, because he's heard rumours that the trains are not heading to Europe, but to a refugee camp. "In this country, I can't believe anything," Srour said. He's already spent time in a camp, and it was "a very bad camp… almost like jail."
He's also reluctant to get registered and fingerprinted with the Hungarian government, out of fear he will be deported.
Hungarian lawmakers are currently pondering how to deal with the migrant crisis. In addition to the migrants waiting at the Budapest train station, they've got a standoff on their hands just outside the city, where hundreds of refugees have refused police orders to disembark from a stopped train.
Hungary has shut its borders with Serbia, but it's unclear how they plan to deal with the refugees who are already in the country.
In the meantime, Srour is left to wait, as he hopes this could be the "final step" before he finds a new life in Europe.
