“The reinforced legal border barrier is functioning well and people living in Hungary and the Schengen Area are living in greater safety”, the Ministry of Interior’s Parliamentary State secretary declared on Wednesday in Röszke.

At a press conference following an external meeting of Parliament’s National Security Committee, Károly Kontrát told reporters that the new regulations had come into effect on 28 March, illegal immigrants may submit their asylum requests in the transit zones and can wait there for them to be ruled upon in humane conditions.

Based on the experiences of the past month, the new regulations are having a divertive effect, migration pressure on the Hungarian-Serbian border has fallen and both people smugglers and illegal immigrants are choosing other routes, he said.

Committee Chairman Zsolt Molnár (Hungarian Socialist Party) said that the members of the Committee had visited the border security command centre in Mórahalom, the transit zone at Röszke and the border itself. The politician said it was doubtful that the physical border barrier was in itself capable of preventing the forced entry of large numbers of people, adding that we still require European-level measures that guarantee both the protection of the Schengen Area and the upholding of human rights regulations.

The politician told reporters that the case of the Chechen man who threatened the activist who threw paint at Budapest’s soviet memorial had been discussed at the meeting. Mr. Molnár said he was a homeless man with no nationality with respect to whom severe doubts had emerged concerning his right to be in Hungary. The Office of Immigration and Asylum and the Constitutional Protection Office are at work and are tasked with uncovering what national security risk the man may represent.

Vice-Chair Szilárd Németh (Fidesz) emphasised that while in 2015 everyday life in the vicinity of the Hungarian-Serbian border was characterised by confusion and chaos, it is today characterised by order, peace and tranquillity.

“We must protect the country from the pressure being applied by Brussels and George Soros”, Mr. Németh said, and called on the public to take part in the National Consultation, stressing that the more people stand up in support of the Government, the greater room for movement the country will have in upcoming negotiations.

Committee member Ádám Mirkóczi (Jobbik) explained that the case of the Chechen man raises the question that there may be a systemic problem with deportation practices within the whole Schengen Area, adding that a suitable examination of the case could create a precedent that may give rise to changes at EU or member state level.

Bernadett Szél (LMP) said that actions of the Chechen man in themselves represented a risk to national security, there is no place for vigilantism in a country that is governed by the rule of law, and that she hopes that official proceedings had been initiated ex officio.

(Ministry of Interior/MTI)