Southern regions unable to cope with migrants, says mayor

Budapest (MTI) – Thousands of illegal entrants arrive in Hungary on a busy day and locals are at the end of their tether, the mayor of Morahalom, near Hungary’s border with Serbia, said on Sunday.

Local residents who live “on the frontline of illegal migration have never denied help to those in need,” Mayor Zoltan Nogradi (Fidesz) told a press conference. But the doors of Europe are wide open and as a result, illegal immigrants flow towards the inner continent without any control or regulation, he said. He criticised Laszlo Botka, the Socialist mayor of Szeged, for commenting recently that modern-day migration caused no problems to his city and region.

On Saturday Zoltan Tessely, lawmaker for the constituency of Bicske, the site of Hungary’s second largest refugee camp just west of Budapest, said local residents want to restore pre-2012 rules and limit the movement of migrants by sealing off camps. Tessely (Fidesz) said the government should further tighten measures for illegal migration besides the planned fence at the border, which the residents of Bicske welcome.

A total of 645 illegal entrants, among them 106 children, were stopped at the border in south Hungary on Saturday, a local police spokesperson said.

Photo: MTI

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