In the first quarter, some 9,000 migrants were detected at the Hungarian-Serbian, Hungarian-Romanian and Hungarian-Croatian border sections, the Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister said on Friday evening on the public service television news channel M1.

György Bakondi highlighted that the coronavirus epidemic and the situation which has developed at the Turkish-Greek border are having an effect on migration.

In the first quarter at the Italian border, a significant increase was observed in the number of migrants. However, in the past few weeks, due to the epidemic, this has come to a halt. At the same time, he added, even in the present situation, non-governmental organisations funded by George Soros are transporting migrants by boat from Libya’s shores to Italy.

According to Mr Bakondi, due to the epidemic, there is also a kind of reverse flow, typically in the case of migrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is less so in the case of Syrian migrants as they do not want to risk their refugee status in Turkey.

He observed that this is not only a spontaneous reverse flow as, with funding from the European Union, for instance, in Greece, those who are prepared to return home are given significant financial incentives.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister)