Right-Wing European Parties May Benefit From Migrant Crisis

Photo An arson attack early Monday injured six at a shelter in Rottenburg am Neckar, Germany. Credit Marijan Murat/DPA, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Stories from Our Advertisers

LONDON — As Europe basks in good feelings over its generosity to thousands of migrants and asylum seekers last weekend, critical voices from the political right and far right are poised to become among the biggest beneficiaries of the continuing flow.

Parties that have been growing in opposition to immigration, the influence of Islam and the European Union seized on the decision by Austria and Germany to welcome the migrants, pointing out the difficulty of now shutting the migrant tap.

And after the shambles of Greece, the image of a European Union seemingly incapable of defending its borders, while trying to impose mandato ry quotas on nations for accepting refugees, fit Euroskeptics' portrayal of Brussels as a European Union capital at once incompetent and domineering.

"Germany, Sweden, and Austria deserve great credit for their willingness to accept refugees, but elsewhere on the Continent the reaction ranges from passivity to outright hostility," said Michael Haltzel, a visiting senior fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs who advised Joseph R. Biden Jr., now vice president, when he served in the Senate. "There is a considerable danger of overload. And I fear that the political beneficiaries in many countries will be right-wing ultranationalists."

Continue reading the main story Interactive Graphic Which Countries Are Under the Most Strain in the European Migration Crisis?

European Union officials struggle to cope with the growing crisis.

Carl Bildt, Sweden's former foreign minister, expressed some of the anxiety felt by governing parties when he said that "at the end of the day, every country is nervous" about this large group of new migrants, "though some pretend not to be."

Right now "there is a tendency to blame everyone else," he said, "but this will be a challenge to every country."

The process of integration into a Western society is difficult and takes time, Mr. Bildt said. "It's far more than providing the first tent."

Eve n in Sweden, he noted, which has been the European country most open to Syrian refugees and asylum seekers, the anti-immigration, anti-European Union Sweden Democrats are now ahead of the two largest parties in the opinion polls with about 25 percent, after having won a record 12.9 percent of the vote in last September's elections.

"It's a tremendous breakthrough for us," Tommy Nilsson, party manager for southern Sweden, told the Daily Telegraph. "There's too much immigration and too many beggars from Eastern Europe. People are starting to realize that this is a serious problem for Sweden."

The new rightist government in Denmark has taken out advertisements in the Lebanese press warning refugees not to come, that the governm ent has toughened immigration laws and cut benefits.

In France, in a speech on Sunday to her National Front party, which warns about Islam, immigration and a powerful German-dominated Brussels, Marine Le Pen accused Germany of opening its doors to refugees to exploit them for cheap labor, while imposing its immigration policies on its neighbors.

"Germany seeks not only to rule our economy, it wants to force us to accept hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers," she said in Marseille.

Referring to the death of a Syrian boy in Turkey and other asylum seekers in a truck in Austria, all at the hands of hu man traffickers, she accused European politicians of "exploiting the death of the unfortunate in these trips organized by mafia. They show pictures, they exhibit the death of a child without any dignity, just to blame the European consciences and make them accept the current situation."

The Syrian civil war is now in its fifth year, and the numbers are staggering. More than four million Syrians have fled the country and are registered as refugees, while another 6.5 million are internally displaced, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. There are more than 1.9 million Syrian refugees in Turkey alone, another 1.1 million in Lebanon and more than 629,000 in Jordan.

Europe cannot take them all.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced something close to pride on Monday that Germany is now seen as a desirable and welcoming destination for refugees. "That is something very valuable, if you look at our history," she said.

But many fear a backlash. She spoke only hours after another arson attack — the latest in more than 200 attacks on asylum seekers or their shelters this year in Germany. Six people were injured when a fire broke out at 2 a.m. in a facility housing 84 people in the pretty south German town of Rottenburg am Neckar.

A day earlier, even the partners in Ms. Merkel's center-right bloc, the Christian Social Union, openly criticized her for allowing in tens of tho usands of migrants from Hungary and Austria. That "sends the wrong signal to individual countries," said Gerda Hasselfeldt, the party's leader in the federal Parliament.

The C.S.U. welcomed a government decision late Sunday to reduce cash allowances for refugees as a victory for their harder line. "There will be less incentive in the future for unfounded applications for asylum," said the party's general secretary, Andreas Scheuer.

Sigmar Gabriel, the leader of the Social Democrats and vice chancellor, acknowledged that beyond the cheers and handouts of chocolates and toys, there were what he called very real worries, fears and conflicts.

"We have to be realistic about this from the start to avoid disappointments," he said. "We'll manage to take in 800,000 this year, accommodate and integrate them, too. But it is also clear for everyone that that cannot repeat every year."

Germany so far has little trouble with far-right political parties. The nationalist Alternative for Germany has split; the anti-immigrant marches have also died down. But neo-Nazis openly battled police at an asylum facility at Heidenau, near Dresden, last month.

In Austria, arson attacks are rare. But a strong populist party, the right-wing Freedom Party, has made noticeable gains in the months of refugee crisis.

Austria expects the same proportion of asylum applications, 1 percent of the population, as Germany. In bellwether elections in Vienna in October, the Freedom Party now threatens to outperform the Social Democrats, making inroads particularly among lower classes with strident anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Some observers believe the sympathy shown to refugees may have tipped the scales away from the rightists.

"These feelings are transitory, of course, but they won't fade without leaving some trace," said Georg Hoffmann-Ostenhof, a columnist for the center-left weekly Profil.

Austrians have traditionally welcomed migrants and felt good doing so this weekend, particularly since almost none of the arriving thousands planned to stay, he said. "For us, this feeling of doing good has come almost for free — at least for the time being."

The issue is sensitive in Britain, too, which last year had net immigration of 330,000 people and where Prime Minister David Cameron is under pressure from his own party and from the U.K. Independence Party to bring down the numbers or withdraw from the European Union.

Under public pressure, Mr. Cameron has now agreed to take up to 20,000 Syrian refugees from camps in the region over the next five years as a humanitarian gesture, and will increase to 1 billion pounds a year humanitarian aid to Syria.

Mr. Cameron has promised a referendum on continued British membership in the European Union by the end of 2017, but possibly to take place next autumn. But what appears to be a European mess and more immigration has been a boon for those o pposed to continued British membership.

Mr. Bildt, of Sweden, says that in the long run, the European Union will come up with some better solutions. "But we have to find a coherent European response. Controlling the outer border of Schengen is vital to the system," he said, referring to the passport-free zone within Europe. "It is uncomfortable but necessary, and it needs to be done."

Source: Right-Wing European Parties May Benefit From Migrant Crisis

Pope Francis Calls On Europe’s Catholics to Shelter Refugees

Updated Sept. 6, 2015 2:39 p.m. ET

ROME— Pope Francis lent his moral authority to efforts to stem a humanitarian crisis in Europe, calling on every Catholic parish there to take in one of the thousands of families coming to the region to flee conflict and poverty.

"May every parish, every religious community, every monastery, every sanctuary in Europe host a family," the pope told a crowd in St. Peter's Square after reciting the traditional noon Angelus prayer.

There are approximately 120,000 parishes in Europe, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University. The pope added that the Vatican itself would receive two families in the next few days.

The pope has made migration one of the major social causes of his pontificate. Only a few months after his election in 2013, he visited the southern Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, a major entry point for undocumented migrants to Europe, where he denounced rich nations' indifference to the thousands who had died trying to cross the sea from North Africa.

His latest appeal to Catholics to set an example of Christian mercy came as Germany and Austria received, via Hungary, one of the largest waves of displaced people since World War II: thousands of migrants, many of them fleeing Syria and other war-torn countries.

Some 13,000 migrants had crossed Hungary's border with Austria by Sunday afternoon. Most of them were already in Germany, which was working to distribute them across the country.

Leaders of Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition were scheduled to meet Sunday night to draft plans and secure funding for the effort. The country appears to remain the destination of choice for many migrants, in particular Syrians, after it already took in thousands of new arrivals last week.

"In the face of the tragedy of tens of thousands of refugees fleeing death in war or hunger, and who are on the road to hope of life, the Gospel calls us, asks us to be near, the littlest and the abandoned," the pope said.

Pope Francis said taking in such families would be a "concrete gesture in preparation for the Holy Year of Mercy," which begins Dec. 8.

The Catholic Church observes so-called jubilee years for pardons and the remission of sins every 25 years and on other occasions designated by the pope, a tradition inspired by the Bible.

Earlier in the week, the pope announced other gestures for the coming year of mercy, including a temporary concession that will make it easier for priests to lift the excommunications of women who ask forgiveness for having had abortions.

—Andrea Thomas in Munich contributed to this article.

Write to Francis X. Rocca at francis.rocca@wsj.com

Source: Pope Francis Calls On Europe's Catholics to Shelter Refugees

As Germany Welcomes Migrants, Some Wonder How to Make Acceptance Last

Photo Migrants in Bicske, Hungary, on Friday, the day that the Hungarian authorities began offering  buses to the western border. The government had been blocking the migrants' progress by strictly enforcing European immigration restrictions. Credit Balazs Mohai/European Pressphoto Agency

BERLIN — As tens of thousands of asylum seekers now pour into Germany, their desired destination, they will be met here by bowls of steaming soup and bread rolls, working bathrooms and an efficient bureaucracy to move them to temporary housing and, possibly, legal immigration status.

The arrival in August of more than 104,400 people seeking asylum has strained resources and challenged authorities from Bavaria to Berlin. Yet such logistical problems are manageable for the Germans, who pride themselves on the country's order and adherence to established rules.

But the long-term integration of a group of people expected to r each 1 percent of the overall population, most of whom practice a different religion and often hold profoundly different world views, is another question altogether.

While the prospect of accepting an expected 800,000 new residents this year offers Germany an opportunity to rejuvenate its aging demographics and ensure its economic prosperity, it also challenges a prevailing cultural consensus of what it means to be German.

"The refugees are synonymous with formidable change," Thomas de Maizière, Germany's interior minister, said recently in an interview with the German weekly Die Zeit. "We must get used to the thought that our country is changing."

That change is at the doorstep. When thousands of migrants were allowed to leave Hungary late Friday and were put on buses to the Austrian border, many were brandishing posters of Chancellor Angela Merkel. In their days of near internment in the inhospitable Hungarian capital, some of the exhausted and desperate travelers broke into chants of "Germany, Germany" and "Merkel, Merkel," demanding to be allowed to continue their journey west.

Germans have met previous waves — and a steady tide — of these newcomers with an outpouring of generosity and support. Thousands of volunteers have shown up in camps to feed the migrants. Others have delivered water and fruit to refugees to ease their long, hot waits as they register their arrival. And some Germans have even risked arrest to circumvent the immigration bureaucracy and shelter so me of the most vulnerable in their churches.

Munich police overseeing the arrival on Monday of trains from Budapest, packed with some 1,300 migrants, were so overwhelmed with public donations that they had to cut off the flow by the next afternoon. As the city prepared for the latest wave on Saturday, those volunteers were incorporated into the authorities' official response plans.

But some fear the outpouring of generosity will not last. The Social Ministry expects the German government to spend 1.8 billion to 3.3 billion euros, about $2 billion to $3.7 billion, in 2016 to cover the refugees' basic needs, language lessons and job training. As those costs mount, so might resentment.

Already Germany has experienced a formidable backlash against the migrants — the worst in Europe. Although the country does not have an influential far-right political party, such as France's National Front or the Freedom Party of Austria, smaller neo-Nazi and right-wing groups have seized on the issue, organizing demonstrations outside homes for asylum seekers. In the first six months of this year, there were more than 200 arson and other attacks on facilities for migrants, and on migrants themselves.

"This massive immigration is increasingly seen in the growing worries of Germans," said Ronny Zasowk of the far-right National Democratic Party, known by its German initials N.P.D. He warned that social structures would be overwhelmed and said that many of the party's followers fea red that an open-door policy could make Germany more vulnerable to Islamic extremism and terrorism.

Mr. de Maizière, whose office is responsible for coordinating the response to the newcomers, has called for more police, but also for more teachers and social workers to help with, for example, the mounds of paperwork necessary to enter into the bureaucratic system. But in the long-term, he warned, more resources will be needed to help the asylum seekers, many of whom fled chaotic and largely dysfunctional states, to adapt to a new way of life.

Among the strongest voices urging tolerance toward immigrants have been the German news media, from the mass-circulation Bild to the public television stations. Experts point to the news media's positive stance as cruci al in helping the public shift its perception of more foreigners coming to the country.

Recalling Nazi racial laws that singled out the Germanic, or Aryan, people as superior to other ethnicities, leading to the Holocaust and the atrocities of World War II, President Joachim Gauck recently urged Germans to embrace the diversity that has since grown up around them.

Until "even more people can part with the image of a nation that is very homogeneous and in which nearly all people speak German as their mother tongue, are fair-skinned and largely Christian," he said, their perception of German society will not reflect the reality of who lives here.

"In reality, life as we live it here is already far more diverse," Mr. Gauck said. "In our heads we know this, but the spirit sometimes lags behind. We as a nation must redefine ourselves, as a collective of different people, but who all accept common values."

Many, including Ms. Merkel, have compared the challenge facing Germany to the historic decisions after the breach of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, when the leaders of West Germany swiftly enacted measures aimed at ensuring the peaceful merger of what for decades had been two separate states.

Even as the country prepares to mark a quarter-century of German reunification this fall, a spate of violent anti-immigrant protests in the eastern state of Sax ony has led to accusations that differences between the two regions still exist, revealing just how difficult it can be even for two peoples who share a language and heritage to feel as one.

Experts also point to the former West Germany's far less successful experiment of integration in the 1960s, when that country invited men, most of them from Turkey, to fill the industrial jobs in its post-World War II factories. But they were viewed as "guests," who would eventually return home, not as future citizens.

"For a long time, we made the mistake of considering migrant workers 'guest workers,' " Ms. Merkel recently told reporters, "an idea that we have recently come to abandon, faced with the reality they are our fellow citizens, no matter what th eir ancestry."

The descendants of those "guest workers" who remained in the country now make up the nearly four million Muslims in Germany's population of almost 82 million. But failure to address the workers' initial needs, and later those of their families, still reverberate. Only this year did the German Parliament pass legislation that would allow children of migrants who were raised or educated in the country to adopt German citizenship, while keeping their own.

"Had we worked to integrate them from the beginning, there would be a lot fewer problems today," said Claudia Walther, a senior project manager with the Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany who has worked on integration.

German leaders see that experience as a moment from which lawmakers can draw valuable lessons as they look ahead to a political summit meeting on Sept. 24 aimed at adopting legal and, possibly, constitutional changes to help the country adapt to the latest influx.

But the Turkish experience is apparently very much on the mind of Mr. de Maizière, who brought it up during the interview with Die Zeit and perhaps provided the starkest insight into the concerns of German leaders as they prepare to accept the thousands heading their way.

"Now we will get hundreds of thousands of Muslims more formed by Arabic background," he told the weekly. "According to all that I am told by my French colleague, that is a b ig difference, as far as integration is concerned."

Source: As Germany Welcomes Migrants, Some Wonder How to Make Acceptance Last

Europe's Economy Needs Action, Not Words

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is something of an expert at moving markets by doing nothing, and he showed his prowess again yesterday. He said the ECB stands ready to stimulate Europe's sluggish economy further, but has no plans to do so right now. That was seen as dovish, so European stocks advanced, euro bond-yields declined, and the currency slipped 1 percent. 

Good news. It all helps -- and Europe's floundering economy sure needs help. In fact, though, there's little more the central bank can do. What Europe needs most is for its governments to act, especially on fiscal policy and financial reform.

Under its existing program of quantitative easing, the ECB buys 60 billion euros worth of bonds a month with the aim of reducing long-term interest rates. It previously said these purchases would continue until "at least September 2016." On Thursday, Draghi said the program would continue until September 2016 "or beyond, if necessary." Notice the difference. The central bank also raised the limit on the share of any asset it can hold from 25 percent to 33 percent; for now, this will have no effect on the program.

The case for a more forceful stimulus is already strong. Draghi said the ECB has (again) downgraded its forecasts for output and inflation. Even by 2017, it expects growth of less than 2 percent and warns there may be spells of falling prices. But with short-term interest rates on the floor and QE proceeding at a brisk pace, the central bank acting alone lacks options. It has soothing words and not much else.

The responsibility for reviving growth in Europe mainly rests with governments. Those with enough fiscal headroom to safely increase public borrowing (Germany, especially) ought to do so. They're disinclined. And the euro area as a whole needs to ease the pressure of austerity on governments that lack such fiscal space (Greece, among others) through debt restructuring and limited pooling of fiscal risk. There's little sign of either.

Looking to the future, a fiscal plan first mooted years ago would make a real difference: Create two classes of government debt, one with a joint guarantee, up to a maximum of 60 percent of gross domestic product, and one without. The safe debt would be cheaper to service even if Europe's problems again took a turn for the worse, while the risky debt would command a premium and hence apply automatic fiscal discipline. This kind of fiscal cooperation isn't even being discussed.

A stronger European recovery needs financial as well as fiscal integration. Here, at least, reforms are being attempted -- but they're moving too slowly. Europe has created a Single Resolution Mechanism to help recapitalize failing banks, but hasn't equipped it with the resources it might need. It has run stress tests on its banks to check for vulnerabilities, but the tests haven't been demanding enough. It had plans for a single deposit insurance scheme, but dropped them.

At the end of this month, the European Commission is expected to propose changes to promote a more integrated capital market. The idea is to lower the regulatory and other barriers that deter savers and investors from doing business across the euro area's internal borders. It's vital both for spurring investment and for strengthening the system's defenses against the next crisis. Preparatory work, discussion and consultation are all under way -- Europe is peerless when it comes to preparatory work -- but the destination of a truly integrated capital market is still nowhere in sight.

Dovish words from Draghi are well and good. But they won't revive the European economy, and they won't be much use when the next crisis comes around.

To contact the senior editor responsible for Bloomberg View's editorials: David Shipley at davidshipley@bloomberg.net.

Source: Europe's Economy Needs Action, Not Words

Europe’s migrant crisis

The number of migrants detected at E.U. borders tripled in July from a year earlier at 107,500, marking the highest number of entries in one month since data was first collected in 2008.

The majority of people illegally entering the E.U. are fleeing Afghanistan and war-torn Syria, Frontex says.

The border agency plans to release statistics for August, a month dominated by migrant tragedy headlines, next week.

A number of boats off the coast of Libya capsized over the past four weeks, with bodies washing up on Turkish and Libyan shores. Over 2,500 refugees and migrants have died or gone missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean since January alone, according to statistics from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Source: Europe's migrant crisis

Can Europe's last sleeper trains survive?

But on platform five, there are scenes of mild chaos.

The City Night Line sleeper has just pulled in and passengers -- me among them -- are grabbing their luggage and eyeing up the carriages that, for the next eight hours, will be their hotel on wheels.

I've been fascinated by night trains ever since I first took a sleeper from Munich to the Hungarian capital Budapest 20 years ago.

Back then such trains were still relatively common sights in European cities not yet in thrall to the budget airline revolution.

Today, it's a different story.

Night services are in decline against the competition of cheap airfares and faster daytime intercity train services.

Yet the allure of the trans-European night sleeper, the star of countless literary and film classics from Agatha Christie to James Bond, continues to endure.

So what's it like riding today's night sleepers?

The passengers waiting with me at Berlin's main station for the sleeper linking Prague to Oberhausen in western Germany are a mixed group.

There's a young couple, just returned from a vacation in Turkey using their rail-and-fly ticket to make a last connection.

A Norwegian family of three, spending a night on the train on their way to Germany's Ruhr region.

There are businessmen in suits with smart leather roller bags, and a group of backpackers playing hacky sack on the platform.

'Relaxed job'

Passengers jostle to board the Prague-Oberhausen sleeper.

After the train has rolled into the station, passengers jostle past each other with bags and suitcases until everyone has found their seat or compartment.

On City Night Line, travelers have the choice between three comfort categories.

These range from economy or deluxe sleeper compartments, couchette cars for group use or single berths in multi-berth compartments, and seated cars with six-seat-compartments or open saloon cars with reclining seats, depending on the route.

Sleeper trains are comprised of different cars from different national operators that are split and recombined at specific stops, making it possible to offer several connections with a relatively small number of cars.

My sleeper compartment is in a Czech car with its own friendly Czech attendant.

Further down the train German staff are looking after passengers in the couchette and seated cars.

"It's always a bit chaotic in the beginning, until everyone has found their seats," says Jeannine Kroggel as she welcomes me on board.

Wearing the uniform of German rail company Deutsche Bahn (DB), Kroggel is the supervisor (Gruppenleiter) on my train, looking after both passengers and staff.

"Once everyone is settled in this is actually a pretty relaxed job -- I often find time to look after paperwork between stops."

She's right.

After Kroggel checks my ticket, I hear the doors of the other passengers' compartments closing one after another and a relative quietness descends.

I'm not ready to sleep, and instead walk the length of the train.

Golden age of travel

If you want to ensure a sleeping berth, you have to make a reservation.

The seated cars are busy, and not everyone seems to have a seat -- the tourist couple from the platform is sitting on the ground, heads resting on their luggage.

"On each sleeper train there are two cars passengers can use without reservation, but we had to lock one of those for safety reasons as the doors are faulty, so unfortunately not everyone will have a seat tonight," Kroggel tells me.

While cheaper -- with prices starting at €40 for the Berlin-Cologne connection via bahn.de -- the seating cars undoubtedly lack the comfort of the cabins with beds.

Part of the appeal of these mobile sleeping quarters is their throwback to a golden age of rail travel.

Sleeper trains have been carrying passengers through European nights for almost 150 years, having been introduced by the Belgian Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL) in 1873.

Services increased over the decades but were severely disrupted, if not totally halted, during World Wars I and II.

The Cold War and subsequent fall of the Berlin Wall, led to a breakup and then re-merger of Germany's main night train operators.

Today, sleeper coaches on DB tracks are operated under the City Night Line brand.

Hotel on wheels

Kroggel has been working on sleeper trains since 2009 and says she's come to appreciate the peculiar life schedule they present her.

"It took me a while to adjust working nights," she says. "But now I'm settled in.

"I work two nights in a row -- once we arrive at our destination I check into a hotel and then work on the same train back in the evening."

The rhythm of the rails makes everything more relaxed.

"For example the one we are on, the Prague-Oberhausen connection, arrives at eight in the morning and leaves again at 9 p.m.

"So I have plenty of time to sleep, chat to my family on the phone and do a bit of shopping or sightseeing if I want to."

She points out the different cars on our train, reflecting the nationalities of the countries they connect.

"I quite enjoy my profession, working with people a lot -- I sometimes think of it as a hotel on wheels.

"Working on the City Night Line has a proper European feel to it -- just look at the cars that make up this train.

"We have a Polish sleeper traveling between Warsaw and Cologne, a Czech sleeper going between Prague and Oberhausen mixed with our own DB cars.

"The same goes for the people traveling on the train -- we have everyone, from Americans on a tour of Europe to German backpackers."

City Night Line is the main operator of night trains in central Europe today.

The network connects Amsterdam with Munich, Munich with Rome and Prague with Oberhausen.

"The only routes I haven't traveled on yet are Munich-Venice and the one between Loerrach and Hamburg, the car train," Kroggel says. "But they are on the list."

She continues her round, wishing me a good night.

I take notes, brush my teeth and clamber into the top bunk.

While drifting off to the clack-clack sound of the train, I contemplate the future of such services.

Although a substantial number of European operators continue to offer sleepers, competition from airlines and fast day trains is eroding their popularity.

Last year, Deutsche Bahn canceled both its Berlin-Paris and Berlin-Copenhagen night routes, citing declining passenger numbers.

DB said that in 2014 its sleeper lines had turned a loss in the double-digit million euro range.

Eco travel

First-class sleeping cars come with their own shower and WC.

But the outlook is much more positive than a year ago.

DB has confirmed that no further cuts are planned and the network is being improved to offer a cost-effective and comfortable night train service.

In an increasingly environmentally conscious age, such trains can capitalize on their green appeal -- the majority of DB services use 100% green electricity.

They're not the only ones investing in improved connections.

Two truly European routes have been re-introduced by Russian rail operator RZD: since 2011 it's operated a sleeper from Paris to Moscow once a week, making it the longest direct passenger train in Europe.

Since 2010, another sleeper has linked Moscow with Nice on the French Riviera, following Russian aristocrats traveling the same route between 1864 and 1914.

I wake up to the sun shining through the window, the fields and small towns of western Germany passing by.

The attendant serves coffee and pre-packed Czech breakfast: rolls, jam and cheese.

My train crosses the Rhine before entering Cologne main station underneath the scenic cathedral.

I slept well and the whole day lies ahead of me.

I decide the night train idea isn't yet outdated.

Traveling through the night is environmentally sustainable, comfortable and a romantic way of getting around Europe.

The sleeper train is a proper deceleration express: no airport rush is needed to board it, and instead of sipping overpriced drinks strapped to a seat, passengers can bring their own dinner and breakfast.

The night train remains the budget airline of idlers and romantics.

Long may it last.

European night sleeper services

The Thello night train runs daily from Paris to northern Italy.

The Berlin Night Express: Berlin-Malmo, Sweden

Caledonia Sleeper: London-Fort William, London-Inverness, London-Aberdeen, London-Glasgow, London-Edinburgh

City Night Line: Amsterdam-Innsbruck, Amsterdam-Zurich, Hamburg-Zurich, Munich-Hamburg, Berlin-Zurich, Prague-Zurich, Munich-Berlin, Munich-Rome, Munich-Milan, Munich-Venice, Oberhausen-Prague

EuroNight Trains: Vienna-Rome, Vienna-Livorno, Vienna-Venice, Vienna-Milan, Vienna-Hamburg, Vienna-Dusseldorf, Vienna-Zurich, Graz-Zurich, Villach-Zurich, Vienna-Danzig, Vienna-Krakow, Budapest-Bucharest, Cologne-Warsaw, Munich-Budapest, Zagreb-Munich, Berlin-Budapest

Hellas Express: Belgrade-Thessaloniki (reservations can be made only at European rail stations)

Intercites de Nuit: Paris-Nice, Paris-Irun, Paris-Albi, Paris-Savoie, Paris-Briancon, Paris-Portbou, Luxembourg City-Nice, Luxembourg City-Portbou, Strasbourg-Nice, Strasbourg-Portbou

Night Riviera Sleeper: London-Penzance

Paris-Moscow Express: Paris-Moscow

SJ: Gothenburg-Ostersund, Gothenburg-Lulea, Stockholm-Ostersund, Stockholm-Lulea, Malmo-Stockholm

Thello: Paris-Venice, Marseille-Milan

Trenhotel: Madrid-Vigo, Madrid-A Coruna, Barcelona-Vigo, Barcelona-A Coruna, Barcelona-Gijon, Barcelona-Granada, Madrid-Lisbon, Lisbon-Hendaye

Marcel Krueger is a German writer and translator based in Dublin and Berlin. He mostly writes about history, travel and beer -- or all three combined.

Source: Can Europe's last sleeper trains survive?

Migrant crisis: One day across destination Europe

Migrant crisis: One day across destination Europe

2 September 2015

From the section Europe

The number of migrants entering Europe has reached record levels, with many seeking to travel north through the continent. We take a look at 24 hours across Europe as many more migrants arrive to try to start a new life - all the images below were taken on 1 September.

The Mediterranean

Many were rescued on Tuesday in the Mediterranean - which more than 300,000 migrants have crossed so far this year and where at least 2,600 have died.

The Norwegian ship Siem Pilot saved more than 800 people in Libyan waters, including 11 pregnant women and more than 30 children, according to the United Nations' refugee arm. Four people were found dead.

More than 1,200 migrants were rescued in Greek waters on Tuesday, the most in one day in some time, the country's coastguard said.

Palermo, Italy

In the Sicilian port city, the bodies were laid to rest of 51 people discovered dead inside the hull of a ship in Libyan waters last week. A suspected trafficker has been arrested.

Piraeus, Greece

A ship carrying 1,800 migrants arrived into the port city of Piraeus on Tuesday night. Most came from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and had travelled to outlying Greek islands.

Greek authorities said another ship, with close to 2,500 migrants on board, was expected to arrive in Piraeus early on Wednesday.

Greek-Macedonian border

Close to 1,500 people are waiting to cross Greece's border with Macedonia - their journey will then take them north through Serbia and Hungary.

Authorities in Macedonia are allowing small groups to cross at a time, but scuffles broke out when hundreds rushed the border in near the Greek town of Idomeni on Tuesday.

Serbia

In the centre of Belgrade, thousands of people are sleeping in a city-centre park before travelling further north by rail. Officials said close to 10,000 people had travelled on to Hungary in the last week.

"You know, there are a lot of problems in our country Afghanistan," one man in Belgrade, Shewalli, told Reuters news agency. "Two months ago I came, by foot, through mountain and forest and rain, day and night, we walked to reach here."

Budapest, Hungary

Hundreds of migrants were left stranded outside a major railway station in the Hungarian capital after police sealed off the terminal to stop them travelling through the EU.

Many chanted "Germany! Germany! We want to leave!" as authorities said only those with valid travel visas would be allowed to travel onward.

As night fell, many hundreds were still outside.

Vienna, Austria

Those who were able to make the journey from Budapest to Vienna arrived in the Austrian capital throughout the day, and were met by volunteers handing out food and water.

Elsewhere in Austria, police rescued 24 young Afghan migrants discovered in the back of a van officers called "a prison cell on wheels". Most were in their teens.

The bodies of 71 migrants were found in the back of an abandoned truck on an Austrian motorway last week.

Munich, Germany

Germany expects to take in 800,000 refugees this year - four times last year's total, and it is the most popular destination to migrants arriving in Europe.

Police in Bavaria said they registered 3,500 migrants in between Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon - the highest number ever registered in the same time period anywhere in Germany.

For many, their journeys will not end here and may continue even further north to Scandinavia.

Source: Migrant crisis: One day across destination Europe