Number of Migrants Attempting to Enter Hungary Increases

The number of migrants trying to enter Hungary has marked an increase recently, the Prime Minister’s Chief Advisor on Homeland Security Gyorgy Bakondi has pointed out.

According to him, more than 430 migrants were arrested at the Hungarian border during the long Pentecost weekend, which the advisor described saying “there is no border section where illegal immigrants would not try [to enter through]”

Due to the increased number of migrants trying to enter Hungary, several soldiers, as well as police officers, are guarding the country’s borders. Camera systems and night vision devices have also been installed.

Bakondi added that more than eleven thousand persons arrived in Hungary in this year on the Croatian, Serbian and Romanian sections, stressing that police officers apprehended a total of 125 human traffickers, mainly from Afghanistan and Syria, who have been granted temporary protection status in Europe and are now trying to take over the role of human traffickers.

The Chief Homeland Security Adviser said that persons on the Balkan route stranded in any of the countries such as Bosna and Herzegovina, Greece or Serbia due to Coronavirus, will be set off again, as the countries have started to lift some of their imposed restrictions which have been put in place as an effort to stop the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Gyorgy Bakondi mentioned the conflict situation on the Turkish-Greek border, which also has been discussed many times before the pandemic.

“There is no change in Turkish migration policy, so after the threat of an epidemic subsides, the pressure on the European Union will continue with the opening of the Turkish borders” Bakondi added.

He clarified that there were nearly 130,000 migrants on the Balkan route, “who have previously caught up in the countries of the region due to the borders closed due to the epidemic threat”.

Although measures due to the epidemic on the Turkish-Greek green border restricted arrivals, migrants continued to arrive on the Greek islands.

Regarding the issue, last month, European Union Border Protection Agency Frontex foresaw that there would be another flow of illegal migrants in the Greek-Turkish border when Turkey lifts its restrictions.