Mass illegal border crossings observed during the period before the coronavirus epidemic have returned to their older “active phase”, the Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister said on the public service television news channel M1 on Wednesday.
Regarding the fact that during the long Whitsun weekend, more than 430 migrants were detained at the Hungarian border, György Bakondi said there is no border section where illegal immigrants are not attempting to enter. Therefore, more soldiers and police officers are serving at the borders; they are guarding Hungary’s borders with sophisticated technical equipment, including camera systems, night vision equipment and thermal imaging cameras.
He added that many migrants are attempting to enter Hungary at Hercegszántó where due to the swampy terrain it is impossible to build a fence, while others are also trying to cross the border via rivers which is a particularly risky undertaking. As a result, the defence forces and the police are patrolling these waterways in boats.
According to the chief security advisor, this year more than eleven thousand migrants have arrived at the Hungarian borders on the Serbian, Croatian and Romanian sections. He also reported that this year the police had apprehended 125 people smugglers, mainly foreigners from Afghanistan and Syria who had been granted temporary ‘protected person’ status somewhere in Europe and were now taking over the role of former people smugglers.
Mr Bakondi warned that there are groups on the Balkans route which – due to the coronavirus – got stuck in one country or another on the route, such as in Greece, Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina. As soon as the measures imposed due to the epidemic are lifted, these more than one hundred and thirty thousand people will set out, he said.
He highlighted that preparedness due to these migrants had been elevated not only at the Hungarian borders; also the Slovenians have sent an extra one thousand police officers to the Croatian border and the Croatians, too, have intensified their presence on the Bosnian border both in terms of personnel and technical support.
On Kossuth Radio’s programme ‘Good morning, Hungary’, the chief security advisor stressed that there had been pressure of varying intensity on the countries of the Balkans route ever since 2015.
In the radio programme, he also spoke about the Mediterranean route where migrants are setting out in increasingly large numbers for Europe. The only change is that the majority are no longer coming from Libya; crossing over to neighbouring Tunisia, they set out for the sea journey from there, Mr Bakondi said.
(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister / MTI)
