Orbán cabinet: 162,000 illegal entrants apprehended so far this year

The Hungarian authorities have apprehended 162,000 illegal migrants at the country’s border since the start of the year, the prime minister’s chief security advisor told public television on Tuesday.

György Bakondi said the number had gone up from 60,000 during the same period in 2021. The number of people smugglers detained has increased from 600 last year to 1,220 this year, he added.

The figures show that the border is under massive pressure, with illegal migrants of various nationalities arriving continually, helped by increasingly well-organised human smuggling rings servicing the routes such as Afghanistan-Germany, he said.

“Hungary’s government is making every effort to guarantee border security … the border fence is being reinforced,” Bakondi said.

He said the fence was being reinforced and raised to make it much harder to cut through or climb over using ladders.

The first 500 members of a special unit of border patrollers to work with local police to secure Hungary’s borders will take their oaths on Friday, he said. (Details – Hungarian Police: Over 1,500 apply to serve in border patrol – VIDEO)

Bakondi told public broadcaster Kossuth radio’s morning programme that whereas in 2015 mostly Syrians were coming to Europe, currently there are also large numbers of people from Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Tunisia, Palestine and Morocco.

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Source: MTI