Over 400 reserve soldiers help handle migrant situation

Budapest, November 11 (MTI) – A total of 454 reserve soldiers are helping the Hungarian army handle the tasks connected to the migrant situation, the defence minister told parliament’s defence and police committee on Wednesday.

Istvan Simicsko said that more than 5,000 soldiers are involved in border protection. A total of 801 reserve soldiers are currently in service and more than 400 of them are involved in joint border protection tasks.

Chief of Staff Tibor Benko said some of them are at work on the borders, including several reserves who have asked voluntarily to be stationed there.

Simicsko said reserves have not been mobilised, adding that mobilisation would mean an official shift from peace to a “war situation”, but nothing like that was happening.

On a different subject, Simicsko said the investigation into three military aircraft accidents over the summer had found no connection between the events.

In May, a Hungarian Gripen overran the runway at Caslav military air base in the Czech Republic, while in June a highly experienced pilot of a Gripen fighter carried out an emergency landing before ejecting at the Kecskemet air base. Later in the month a Soviet-made Yak-52 training aircraft caught fire and crash landed.

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