“Freedom was at stake” before call to erect border fence, says interior minister
Budapest, September 30 (MTI) – Hungary needed to erect a fence on its border with Serbia because “freedom was at stake”, the interior minister told parliament’s defence and law enforcement committee on Wednesday.
Sandor Pinter said the European Union’s Schengen rules stipulate that the zone’s external borders have to be protected and that measures must be in place to prevent anyone from crossing the “green” border. Under the rules, periphery states are free to set the rules of entry into the EU’s territory, he added.
The minister told the committee that a total of 287,383 people have entered Hungary illegally so far this year, most of them entering from Serbia. He said illegal migrants are still being registered on the Serbian border, but not on the Croatian one, as the government “will assume” that the migrants coming from that EU member state were already registered. Pinter said the Croatian government had indicated that it was “fully prepared” to register the migrants.
Pinter said migrants who have been registered in Hungary could later be sent back, noting that western European countries want to send back more than 30,000 people, in accordance with the Dublin Agreement.
The minister said that most of the migrants who have submitted their asylum applications in Hungary are “not cooperative”, and leave the country once their asylum procedure begins. He added, however, that refugee reception centres cannot be kept locked.
Responding to a question by committee head Lajos Kosa, Pinter said that the Hungarian-Croatian border is only partially sealed, as only three border crossing points have been closed.
The minister noted that other EU member states have also deployed their armies to manage the migrant crisis, adding that the Hungarian troops carried out their duties in line with the law.
Answering a question by Tamas Harangozo of the Socialists, Pinter said the border fence had to be installed to protect Hungary’s border and was a matter of national security. He added that the government was constantly monitoring the clashes between police and migrants at the Roszke border station in order to avoid any violations of the law.
Responding to questions from Agnes Vadai and Timea Szabo (both independent), the minister said the incident at the Roszke station did not harm the freedom of the press, adding that proceedings have not been launched against any of the reporters who were at the scene.
Kosa told reporters after the committee’s session that the fence on the Hungarian-Serbian border has lived up to expectations and that only a few people still try to enter Hungary through the “green” border with Serbia.
He said transit zones at the border crossing points are open, meaning that anyone entering Hungary from Serbia who wants to submit an asylum application can notify the authorities at the border station.
He said that most of the illegal migrants are now entering Hungary from Croatia, making it necessary to install a fence along that border as well.
Photo: MTI
Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters
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Jobbik is your only hope.