Migrants often attempt to cross the Hungarian border presenting forged passports, Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister György Bakondi said on the public service television news channel M1 on Friday evening.

Mr Bakondi was asked in connection with news reports that in Greece an investigation also involving police officers has started in an extensive passport scandal.

The Prime Minister’s chief security advisor said passports, visas and entry stamp impressions are often forged, photos are replaced, and “identities are likewise replaced” on numerous occasions. The latter means that a person that resembles the actual holder of the passport seeks to enter the country presenting the document.

Mr Bakondi further highlighted that the new Italian government had gradually eased the former stringent immigration regulations, and now “they are about to quasi-abolish them”. He added that today the boats of NGOs transporting migrant groups in the hundreds are able to enter Italian ports without much restriction.

He said at present the Balkans route is the main migration route. At the same time, if the situation in Libya does not change and the hundreds of thousands of migrants currently there are allowed to set out unhindered, a more intensive increase in migrant numbers could begin at the Italian shores as well.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)