BICSKE, Hungary — Stepping back from a confrontation with asylum-seekers that drew condemnation from throughout Europe, Hungary will use buses to ferry thousands of migrants from Budapest to the border with Austria, a senior government official said Friday.

The government’s fierce attitude to asylum-seekers fleeing war and poverty sent more than a thousand of them on a long march across the nation in a bid to reach Western Europe, where they hope for better lives. The turnaround was a major admission of defeat for Hungarian authorities, who had sought to make their nation a bulwark against what they say is a tide of Muslim migration that threatens to overwhelm Europe.

In recent days authorities had tried to halt their journey by stopping rail traffic, penning them in migrant camps and bolstering security at the border.