Hungarian authorities prepared to tackle increased migration pressure, says official

Hungarian authorities are prepared to tackle an increasing migration pressure along the country’s southern borders “to ensure the security of Hungarian citizens by all means”, the head of parliament’s defence and law enforcement committee said after a meeting of the body on Wednesday.

Participants in the meeting discussed developments at the Röszke border station, where a group of 50-60 illegal migrants attempted forced entry into Hungary on January 28, Lajos Kósa told reporters.

“It was clearly an organised action, a deliberate provocation” probably aimed at “sending the message that the Schengen area could be accessed via Hungary”,

Kósa said, and added that similar attempts could be expected in the future.

Kósa said that

Hungary’s border with Serbia was facing increased pressure of migration because Croatian authorities were “extremely strict” with illegal entrants and migrants now tend to find other ways to get into the European Union.

• Migrants arrested after storming border fence receive prison sentences, expulsion orders

Kósa also said that Hungarian authorities had apprehended four times as many human smugglers in the past six weeks than during the same period last year.

Read alsoOrbán cabinet: Europe-bound migrants change path

Source: MTI