So far 75,000 asylum procedures cancelled in 2015

The number of asylum procedures that had to be cancelled this year is set to exceed 75,000 on Friday, the director for refugee affairs of Hungary’s immigration office told public news channel M1.

Árpád Szép said that in 80 to 85 percent of the cases, asylum procedures are cancelled because the asylum seeker flees before the procedure is completed.

Szép said 95 percent of the asylum procedures launched this year had to be cancelled because the immigration office was unable to determine whether the applicant was eligible for refugee status. The office rejected fewer than 2,000 applications in the cases of completed asylum procedures, Szép added.

He noted that 155 asylum applications were registered on Thursday, bringing the total number of applications filed this year to 174,660.

Szép said that one fifth to one quarter of asylum seekers are children.

The national police said on its website that so far more than 250,000 migrants have entered Hungary illegally this year. Criminal proceedings have been launched against 196 people for illegal border crossing, police said.

Photo: MTI

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