Army starts constructing border fence – UPDATE

Budapest, July 13 (MTI) – The Hungarian army on Monday started building the border fence to stem the massive flow of illegal migrants across Hungary’s border with Serbia.

The army started preparatory work on a 150-metre section – felling, cutting the underbush, and road building – in the area, on the outskirts of Morahalom, the interior and defence ministries said in a joint statement.

Illegal migration towards Europe has become a threat to the continent. On average, 1,000 illegal immigrants cross the Serbian-Hungarian border every day, making illegal immigration a serious problem. Out of 78,190 illegal immigrants registered this year, 77,600 arrived across Serbia, the statement said.

Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced on June 17 that the interior minister had been ordered to prepare for the construction of a 4-metre fence along a 175-kilometre section of Hungary’s border with Serbia.

On July 6, parliament granted the Hungarian state use of a ten metres strip within the European Union’s outer Schengen borders to ensure fast construction of the border fence.

The government said it would reallocate nearly 6.6 billion forints (EUR 21m) for the construction.

The leftist opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) demanded that work on the fence should be stopped as it “served only the purpose of stopping Fidesz’s loss of popularity”. Csaba Molnar, the party’s deputy leader, said a recent survey showed 67 percent of Hungarians think the fence is “completely unfit to stop migrants”. He added that according to the interior ministry 98 percent of illegal entrants are order stopped at the border now, without any fence.

The Dialogue for Hungary (PM) party said the government’s building a “new Iron Curtain” was unacceptable and its cost, which they estimated at 35 billion forints, should be used to ease poverty and ensure higher pay for teachers, social sector and health workers.

PM called on the government to stop construction immediately, and suggested that vacant army barracks should be used to accommodate immigrants.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters