Hungarian Border Police Detected Nearly 270,000 Illegal Migrants Last Year
Through a statement issued by the Hungarian government, Hungary’s Chief Security Adviser György Bakondi said that in 2022 his country’s authorities arrested 1,924 people smugglers, up from 1,277 in 2021, AtoZSerwisPlus.com reports.
At the same time, he added that the number of people smugglers held in Hungarian prisons stands at 2,500, who are nationals of 73 different countries. In addition, Bakondi emphasised that the related tasks cost the central budget an additional three billion forints in 2022.
“Border protection duties were carried out by a force of 500 armed security guards and 13,476 civil guards helped by 237 Czech, 70 Austrian, 50 Turkish, and 39 Slovak police officers along the Serbian border,” he pointed out in this regard.
Bakondi also revealed that last year border protection cost a total of 650 billion forints or 1.63 billion euros, 98.5 per cent of which was covered by Hungary’s central budget.
Meanwhile, the same also noted that there were 265 cases when immigrants violently attacked Hungarian patrol guards along the Serbian border, as a result of which 29 troops and 12 policemen were injured.
According to Bakondi, the number of illegal entries is increasing, and Hungary remains the main route for undocumented immigrants coming from the Balkans with the help of people smugglers. These immigrants come mainly from Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Morocco, and India.
Moreover, Hungarian authorities revealed that from the beginning of last year until August, a total of 145,000 illegal entries were registered at the country’s border.
Commenting on these data, Bakondi said that compared to the same period in 2021, the number has increased by 57,000.
As Bakondi explains, the number of arrested smugglers has also doubled to nearly 1,000.
