Hungary border control

First PzH2000 self-propelling gun arrives in Hungary

Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, the candidate for defence minister

The Hungarian military will receive its first PzH2000 self-propelling gun on Wednesday, the defence minister said on Facebook, adding that the equipment would be “instrumental in rebuilding an armoured force”.

The war in neighbouring Ukraine and the massive presence of illegal migrants along Hungary’s southern border have only reinforced the government’s commitment to developing the capabilities of the Hungarian armed forces, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said.

The minister said a modern army was “inconceivable without a strong and able artillery”. Referring to the government’s military reform now underway, Szalay-Bobrovniczky said it was “the largest such programme in central Europe”.

“We continue to support peace but peace requires strength,” he added.

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Read alsoRussian oil supplies to Hungary to restart within days!

Thousands would like to become border rangers in Hungary

Hungary Border Fence Migration Illegal

Hungary is setting up its new border ranger units because it is seeing more and more people smugglers at its borders who are becoming increasingly aggressive, a state secretary of the interior ministry said on Friday.

Altogether 10 percent of Hungary’s 19,000 prison inmates, or some 2,000 people, are foreign people smugglers, Bence Rétvári told public current affairs channel M1, adding that their share was over 20 percent in the prison in Szeged, in southern Hungary.

Because the handling of people smugglers — most of whom are Bulgarian, Serbian, Macedonian and Middle Eastern — requires the authorities to perform a range of additional administrative tasks, they cost the budget an extra 4 billion forints (EUR 10.1m) a month, Rétvári said.

Illegal migration into Hungary has not slowed despite the war in Ukraine, the state secretary said, adding that more and more people smugglers were reaching the country and becoming increasingly aggressive.

So far this year, a total of 133,000 illegal migrants have tried to enter Hungary, compared with 122,000 all of last year, he said. The authorities have apprehended 999 people smugglers so far this year, as against 600 by mid-summer 2015, he added.

Rétvári said a shooting between migrant groups in Subotica (Szabadka), near the Hungarian border, last month indicated that people smuggler rings were fighting each other for control over migration routes. If Hungary’s borders weren’t properly protected, this could happen in Hungary, too, he added.

“Meanwhile, Brussels is busy speeding up its procedures against Hungary,” Rétvári said.

“They’re inviting migrants to Europe, while migrant-sending countries aren’t stabilising, which is why the border rangers are needed.”

He said the border rangers could begin serving at the southern border in September alongside the police officers currently posted there before gradually taking over border protection duties from them. So far, more than 7,700 people have expressed interest in becoming border rangers, the state secretary said.

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Read also Minister: Hungary will protect Austria, Europe from illegal migrants

Hungary’s southern border crossings have fallen

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The waiting time is more than four hours at the Röszke border crossing on the Serbian-Hungarian border. That is because guest workers are now returning to West Europe from their holiday spent at home. 

On the entrance side of the border crossing, even the buses have to wait one hour. Furthermore, those planning to travel to Serbia by car must wait one hour, too. In Ásotthalom, where the border station is open between 7 am and 10 pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday until the end of August, the waiting time is two hours on the entrance side, index.hu reported.

The border crossings in Tiszasziget or Kübekháza are open between 7 am and 7 pm. Police recommend everybody choose those to enter Hungary quicker.

At Csanádpalota and Nagylak, the waiting time for buses and cars is one hour to and from Romania.

You may find further information about the opening times and the waiting time HERE, or you can download the police’s mobile app (Rutin).

 

Border hunter Hungary Viktor Orbán
Read also Hungarian police starts recruiting ‘border hunters’!

Thousands of human smugglers are in Hungarian prisons

Jail prison human smuggler

The prime minister’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, said yesterday that there were some 2,000 human smugglers in prison in Hungary, 88 percent of whom are foreigners and 97 percent male. Hungary’s prison capacities are sufficient but such inmates pose a great burden on the country therefore their expulsion is a preferred choice, he added.

Government spokeswoman Alexandra Szentkirályi said that 860,000 refugees had arrived in Hungary so far fleeing from the war in Ukraine, some 27,000 applied for and 23,000 were granted refugee status.

Concerning the recruitment of “border rangers” to protect the Schengen borders, Gulyás said over 6,000 people have expressed interest so far. The interior ministry has envisaged to set up a 2,200-strong force by September which will later be expanded to 4,000, he said.

Gulyás said that at recent talks between Orbán and the Austrian chancellor, the protection of the EU’s external borders was a highlighted topic. Austria has offered help for the protection of southern borders, he added. It was agreed that the two countries’ prime ministers would meet the Serbian president in the coming weeks, he said. It is a problem, however, that Slovenia’s new left-wing government had immediately started dismantling the fence along the Croation border, Gulyás said.

Hungarian teachers’ wages to reach 80% of the average salary of degree holders?

The prime minister’s chief of staff said that talks are under way on a daily basis about an agreement with the European Union. Gulyás said there were no significant professional disputes between the two sides and the European Commission was trying to achieve an agreement that it could politically represent in other European forums. The sides will be able to reach an agreement on certain matters very soon but there are some details that still need to be clarified, he added.

It has been agreed that

teachers’ wages will be increased to 80 percent of the average wage for degree holders by the end of the current EU financial framework,

he said, urging left-wing MPs and MEPs not to make efforts to prevent the increase in teachers’ wages.

Asked about shortage of manpower in health care and education, Gulyás said that the number of physicians had increased by 7,000 since 2010. There might be shortages in some areas but in general the medical profession is staffed properly, he said. As for teachers, Gulyás suggested lifting the restrictions for their employment over retirement age.

migration
Read also Minister: Hungary will protect Austria, Europe from illegal migrants

Serbian man wanted for murder arrested at Röszke in Hungary

Border crossing Röszke Serbia

A Serbian national wanted for a homicide in France has been arrested at the Röszke motorway border crossing with Serbia, police said on Wednesday.

The 47-year-old man tried to cross into Serbia as a car passenger on Tuesday night, police said on their website. An inspection by the police revealed that the French authorities had issued an arrest warrant on suspicion the man had carried out a homicide.

The Serbian was taken into custody and awaits an extradition procedure, the police said.

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Hungarian police starts recruiting ‘border hunters’!

Border hunter Hungary Viktor Orbán

Police have started to recruit “border hunter” patrols to deploy on Hungary’s southern borders, against illegal migration, leading police officers told a press conference on Friday.

National deputy police chief Csaba Tarcsa said the “border hunters” will be an independent unit within the police force, with 14 companies stationed in Bacs-Kiskun County, 6 in Csongrad-Csanad, and 1 company in Bekes, Hajdu-Bihar and Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg counties each. Deputy police chief Zsolt Pozsgai said the first campaign aims for recruiting 2,200 men for a 3-year period.

Police: 13,670 refugees arrive from Ukraine on Thursday

Fully 7,445 people crossed into Hungary directly from Ukraine on Thursday, while another 6,225 from Ukraine crossed from Romania, the national police headquarters (ORFK) said. Police issued temporary residence permits valid for thirty days to 295 people, ORFK told MTI on Friday.

Holders of such permits must contact a local immigration office near their place of residence within thirty days to apply for permanent documents, it added. Budapest received 68 people, 22 children among them, by train, ORFK said.

Hungary migration southern border fidesz
Read alsoMembers of Hungary’s new border guards will get ridiculous wages

Hungary’s armed forces ordered to step up readiness

Hungarian Armed Forces

Hungary’s defence minister on Wednesday instructed the country’s Armed Forces to step up its state of readiness.

“We are facing hitherto unseen security challenges” like the war in Hungary’s immediate neighbourhood and “the violent illegal migrants laying siege to the border”, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said on Facebook.

These challenges are being addressed throughout Europe, the minister said. The United Kingdom has announced the mobilisation of its armed forces, Slovakia has declared a state of emergency and Poland is boosting its military readiness, he said. “We must also be armed and ready,” he said.

Szijjártó
Read alsoHungarian FM: Europe facing ‘unprecedented’ migration pressure

Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that in the interest of preserving Hungary’s peace he has instructed army chief Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi to prepare to step up troop readiness.

This means that troops will be involved in more exercises around the country in the coming weeks and months, he said. Training will be accelerated and more reservists will be called up, he added.

“We’re doing this in the interest of protecting our families and homes,” Szalay-Bobrovniczky said. “Hungary’s protection is the duty of the Hungarian Armed Forces.”

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Bakondi: Subotica migrant shootout ‘stark warning’

Bakondi György

The recent shooting between migrant groups in Subotica (Szabadka), near the Hungarian border, represents a “stark warning” that the problem posed by illegal migration is escalating, the prime minister’s chief domestic security advisor has said.

The shooting happened after people smuggling rings got into a fight about how they should divide up a section of the Hungary-Serbia border amongst themselves, Gyorgy Bakondi told Demokrata magazine in an interview published on Wednesday. The people smugglers even fired at Serbian police officers, which has escalated the problem at the border, he said.

Read alsoHungarian FM: Romania’s political stability in Hungary’s interest

Citing projections, Bakondi said even more waves of migrants are expected to arrive at the border.

This is connected to the war in Ukraine, he said, arguing that Ukrainian grain stuck in the Black Sea ports could lead to a famine in places like west Africa’s Sahel region, which people are already leaving in significant numbers.

Also, terrorist groups could find new recruits among the migrants arriving in Europe, Bakondi warned. “We really are talking about people who are hungry and therefore irritated and more open to resorting to terrorism than those who came in the past,” he said.

“People smuggling has become a well-organised area of crime,” Bakondi said, blaming Western politicians who he said “treat this phenomenon as a forgivable crime”.

Bakondi pointed out that some 109,000 people attempted to cross Hungary’s border illegally in the first half of the year, compared with 46,000 in 2021. The number of people smugglers apprehended has also nearly doubled since last year, he added.

hungarian police drug dealer caught in Budapest
Read alsoProsecutor’s Office: Brazilian drug trafficker to remain in custody during appeal against extradition

Hungarian FM: Europe facing ‘unprecedented’ migration pressure

Szijjártó

New waves of migration triggered by famine could put unprecedented pressure on Europe, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said after a meeting of five central European foreign ministers in Budapest on Wednesday.

Hungary faces the dual pressure, having taken in more than 830,000 refugees from Ukraine while preventing 120,000 illegal migrants from entering at the southern border, Szijjarto told a press conference.

He said Hungary would continue to care for refugees while stopping illegal migration at its border, adding that the country has spent 1.6 billion euros on those two tasks, while Brussels had reimbursed only 2 percent of the costs so far.

Addressing energy issues, the minister said Hungary’s natural gas storage facilities were 44 percent full and were being filled up further.

Read alsoHungarian Justice minister: Europe needs peace

Prosecutor files charges against member of Dutch human trafficking gang

Hungary migration southern border fidesz

Public prosecutors in southern Hungary have filed charges against a suspected Dutch member of a criminal organisation that attempted to transport ten border violators to the Austrian-Hungarian border from the vicinity of the southern border.

The Dutch man is suspected of having joined an international criminal group based in The Netherlands in May 2021, a Bács-Kiskun County prosecutor’s office spokesperson told MTI on Wednesday.

On May 20, the Dutch man and a friend allegedly travelled from Budapest to the Hungarian-Serbian border in a rented car before transporting four illegal entrants to the Austrian border. The following day, the Dutch man picked up six Syrian migrants between Vaskút and Bátmonostor and made their way towards Austria, but were stopped and arrested by the police shortly afterwards.

The man is scheduled to appear before the Baja District Court.

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Read alsoShocking: Hungarian woman tries to flush newborn baby down the toilet

Orbán announced how many border hunters would protect Hungary!

Border hunter Hungary Viktor Orbán

The government has decided to strengthen the protection of its southern borders and protect the safety of Hungarians living in the area, the prime minister said on Friday, adding that setting up a special border guard force will serve this goal.

“We will set up border hunter units tasked with safeguarding your security in collaboration with the police,” Viktor Orbán said in a video posted on Facebook. In the first phase, a total of 2,200 border guards will be trained and assigned to protect the borders, to be followed by expanding the force to 4,000, Orbán said, adding that he signed a relevant decree earlier in the day.

He said the cabinet had held a long meeting on Thursday lasting for more than ten hours which time was required because of the war in Ukraine that threatens not only Hungary’s economy, but its security as well.

The cabinet concluded at its meeting that several countries in Africa were running short on food supplies. “As a result of the food crisis migration pressure is

expected to increase on Hungary’s southern borders with several hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants setting off for Hungary,

and to Europe, in the coming weeks and months,” Orbán said, noting “an increase in the number of illegal entrants” in the recent past. “They are becoming more violent,” the prime minister said, noting that clashes on the Serbian side of the border had claimed a person’s life.

Hungary migration southern border fidesz
Read alsoMembers of Hungary’s new border guards will get ridiculous wages

Goverment to set up border guard force

Hungary migration southern border fidesz

The government will set up a border guard force within the ministry of the interior, Gergely Gulyás, head of the Prime Minister’s Office, told a regular weekly press conference on Thursday.

Gulyás said the border guards will be formed within the police and initially some 2,200 members will be recruited.

Szijjártó
Read alsoHungarian FM: Hungary supports strengthening Bosnia-Herzegovina’s stability

The border guards will protect the border in cooperation with police, he said. This will take the burden off the army and more persons will be protecting Hungary’s borders, he added.

The budget resources will be provided from the defence allocation, he said.

In addition to a recent increase in the number of border violation attempts, the border violators have been acting more aggressively than before, he said. He cited an armed conflict on the Serbian side of the border which claimed lives and added that armed migrants had several times attempted to cross the border fence.

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Members of Hungary’s new border guards will get ridiculous wages

Hungary migration southern border fidesz

Prime minister Viktor Orbán announced last week that the government would establish border guards to provide more effective border protection. That is because the government believes new and massive waves of illegal migrants will arrive at the Southern borders. Furthermore, the prime minister said on Friday that the front would move closer to the Hungarian-Ukrainian borderline. However, it seems that the members of this new branch will get ridiculous wages.

Hungary had an independent border guard between 1946 and 2007, but the Ferenc Gyurcsány-lead Socialist-liberal cabinet dissolved it. Police received the task of border protection, and border guards became police officers. When the migration crisis started in 2015, several political parties, for example, Jobbik, demanded its reestablishment, but PM Orbán refused.

He changed his mind by last Monday. Orbán announced that interior minister Sándor Pintér got three months to create a separate border guard unit. The border guards will be enhanced by so-called “hunting squadrons”, Orbán added. The new body will have 2-4,000 strong members, the prime minister cleared.

Based on index.hu, two police departments search for armed security guards in Bács-Kiskun and Csongrád-Csanád counties. Interestingly, the job description does not contain any reference to hunting squadrons, it tells only about armed security guards at the southern borders of Hungary. Therefore, the recruits

can calculate with a HUF 260 000 (EUR 642) per month gross wage.

That amount will be supplemented by a 400 HUF (EUR 1) extra hourly wage and payment for night work. They will receive an additional HUF 200 000 (EUR 494) per year as a cafeteria allowance.

Index.hu says that the Hungarian police have been struggling with human resources problems. However, such low wages will not be too attractive, the media outlet suggests. Azonnali.hu reported that after the end of the pandemic state of emergency, 299 police officers left.

Hrportal.hu wrote that the number of recruits at the Hungarian police is continuously falling. In 2017, the number of applications to law enforcement schools stood at 3,528. The number of those who could start their studies was 1,751 that year. These numbers were 989 and 471 in 2019. That means a 74 percent decrease in only one year. In 2020, the police introduced a fast-track program, but they managed to find only 1,874 applicants in 2021, which is still 50 percent fewer than in 2017.

Zoltán Orgovány, chairman of the police trade union in South Transdanubia (Dunántúl), said that

the starting net salary is around 617 EUR per month if the officer has overtime work and serves night shifts. However, even that wage is no longer competitive in Hungary.

Featured image: illustration

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Minister: migrants at Hungary’s borders “have no right to cross”

Hungary is “under simultaneous pressure from the east and from the south”, the foreign minister told public Kossuth Rádió on Sunday morning.

Péter Szijjártó said that some 12,000-13,000 refugees were arriving daily from war-stricken Ukraine, adding that “when fleeing from war, you cannot go anywhere but to a neighbouring country”. On the other hand, migrants at Hungary’s southern borders “have no right to cross” since they “violated the borders of several safe countries including Serbia and Hungary”.

Hungary will maintain strict border controls,

therefore “there is a great need” to set up an independent force for that purpose, he said.

Besides the east, NATO should also focus on challenges in the south, with special regard to an increasing threat of terrorism, and a possible famine due to interrupted grain supplies from Ukraine, which could trigger “unprecedented” waves of migration, Szijjártó warned.

“Peace is in Hungary’s interest in every possible aspect,” the minister said, adding that “each minute of the war in Ukraine poses a security threat”. The Hungarian military, therefore, needs to be developed, “to which end defence spending will reach 2 percent of GDP next year”, he said.

An atmosphere of war has overtaken NATO, Szijjártó said but added that “luckily the position prevails that everything must be done to avoid a direct conflict between NATO and Russia”. He called it a “wise decision” that

NATO as an alliance will not send weapons to Ukraine “as that would threaten an even greater tragedy”.

Concerning energy, Szijjártó said that in view of “energy prices earlier thought inconcieavable” those countries will be safe in future that are able to produce sufficient energy for their own consumption. The upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant “will be of tremendous help” to Hungary, he added.

The Hungarian government is “continously speeding up the project” so that the two new blocks could start production in 2030, Szijjártó said, adding that the upgraded plant and solar developments would bring the country “very near to self-sustenance” in terms of electricity.

Construction at Paks is not hindered by European sanctions against Russia, as peaceful use of nuclear energy is “not impacted in any way” by those restrictions, Szijjártó said.

Hungary to set up independent border control force

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It is high time Hungary set up an idependent force to control its borders, the group leader of ruling Fidesz said on Saturday, in connection with an armed clash between migrant groups in Serbia earlier in the day.

Máté Kocsis said that the conflict, outside Subotica (Szabadka) had claimed lives. Kocsis noted that over 100,000 migrants had attempted to cross into Hungary illegally since the beginning of this year, and said that the police and soldiers currently controlling the border would also be needed at the Ukraine-Hungary border.

Police: Over 13,000 refugees arrive from Ukraine on Friday

Fully 6,839 people crossed into Hungary directly from Ukraine on Friday, while another 6,252 from Ukraine crossed from Romania, the national police headquarters (ORFK) said. Police issued temporary residence permits valid for thirty days to 358 people, ORFK told MTI on Saturday.

Holders of such permits must contact a local immigration office near their place of residence within thirty days to apply for permanent documents, it added. Budapest police received 62 refugees, 20 children among them, arriving by train, ORFK said.

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Read alsoOne dead after migrants’ armed clash near the Serbian-Hungarian border

One dead after migrants’ armed clash near the Serbian-Hungarian border

serbia_migration_attack_police

Afghan and Pakistani migrants clashed in a forest close to the Hungarian-Serbian border yesterday night. The severe armed conflict left at least one dead and six injured. The migrants even clashed with local Serbian police who wanted to stop the bloodshed.

According to 24.hu, the hospital of Szabadka, a city of 141 000 residents populated by more than 50 000 Hungarians in North Serbia, treated six Pakistani and Afghan migrants today. They attacked each other near the forest of Makkhetes with firearms.

Locals were woken up to gunshots, but they first thought it was just a drill or the sound of an ice protection system. The six injured were taken into hospital because of injuries they suffered from guns. A 16-year-old girl is in the most severe condition. The healthcare staff is still struggling for her life.

Based on the report of Pannon RTV, the illegal migrants opened fire on the Serbian police officers. Currently, units of the interior ministry are still there.

The police department of Szabadka received the first call about the armed conflict at 3 AM this morning. A local said that he heard gunshots from the nearby forest. Police arrived at the scene with significant forces dressed in bulletproof vests. They blocked all roads leading from and to the forest.

Serbian interior minister Aleksandar Vulin arrived there by noon. The president of the local community, Mirsad Nalić, said he had no official information about what happened. The police have not yet finished their operation, he added. However, he highlighted that they cooperated perfectly with the interior ministry, the local police and the border guards.

“Police officers are constantly present, they transport migrants daily, but the illegal migrants always return. I want to stress that there was no incident in the village, public security is good, and the citizens are safe”, Mr Nalić concluded.

Below you can find the report of Pannon RTV. Unfortunately, however, it is in Hungarian:

Orbán: Hungary to speed up military developments

Viktor Orbán NATO summit

Hungary will speed up the development of its military by two to three times, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio Friday. “We must pursue capability development at a very fast pace,” he said. He said NATO had not yet confronted the possibility of “a collapse of the Ukrainian front”, adding that there was “every chance” of the front would be moving closer to Hungary.

Hungary’s defence capabilities must be stepped up “radically” with “superhuman effort”, he said. “To secure peace, we must now boost our military capabilities massively,” Orbán said. “This is not Hungary’s war; we must stay out of it,” he added.

Hungary, the prime minister insisted, was in a tougher position than other states due to the war in Ukraine and the “flood of migrants”.

He noted that 800,000 refugees have so far entered Hungary,

while this year the number of people crossing the border illegally has numbered more than 100,000.

Ukrainian EU candidacy ‘gives chance to stand up’ for rights of ethnic Hungarians

Ukraine obtaining candidate status from the European Union will help to bolster the rights of ethnic Hungarians living there, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public Kossuth Radio on Friday.
The candidacy is a “first step”, and it does not automatically mean the start of integration talks, he noted. Kyiv will have to fulfil requirements for the accession talks to begin, including EU and Hungarian requirements regarding ethnic minorities in the country, he said.

“We are in a much better position now, with Ukraine requesting the candidacy, than we would be otherwise,” he said.

End war to end wartime inflation

The only way to end wartime inflation is by putting an end to the war, he said. “Hungary must be on the side of peace,” Orbán cleared. Whereas Hungary is officially curbing the price of certain products, wartime inflation can only be dampened temporarily and partially using these means, he said. Rather than imposing more sanctions, a ceasefire followed by an agreement on a framework for peace negotiations is needed, he added. The prime minister said that amid a war situation, the country was in a defensive posture, and now was not the time to push forward with investments or even wages. Rather, the aim now was to

“not allow the war situation to push our economic development and living standards backwards,”

he said.

The government, Orbán added, pledges to protect full employment, the family support system, caps on utility bills and pensions.

Police: 12,445 refugees arrive from Ukraine on Thursday

Fully 6,560 people crossed into Hungary directly from Ukraine on Thursday, while another 5,895 from Ukraine crossed from Romania, the national police headquarters (ORFK) said. Police issued temporary residence permits valid for thirty days to 309 people, ORFK told MTI on Friday.

Holders of such permits must contact a local immigration office near their place of residence within thirty days to apply for permanent documents, it added. Budapest police received 268 refugees, 125 children among them, arriving by train, ORFK said.

Jobbik welcomes plans for setting up stand-alone border guard force

Opposition Jobbik has welcomed Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Monday remarks expressing support for plans to set up a dedicated border guard force.

Deputy party leader László György Lukács told an online press conference on Tuesday that Jobbik had been urging the move for years and the party is calling for setting up the force without delay.

The security situation in the region and the pressure posed by migration on Hungary’s borders have made it necessary to send units of soldiers and police from the country’s central areas to the borders and this has “created a vacuum” there, he said.

Setting up a stand-alone border guards service without delay is necessary and unavoidable, he said. The armed forces must focus on defence activities instead of guarding the borders and police have an important task to combat deteriorating public security, he added.

Read also Protectors of Hungary’s southern borders attacked hundreds of times