Thousands of illegal immigrants arrested at the Hungarian-Romanian border

Photo: Police.hu

Thanks to close cooperation between Hungarian and Romanian police, border partols detained over 4,000 illegal migrants on the border of the two countries between January and August this year, the head of the Oradea regional border patrol unit said on Monday.

Speaking to a press conference held together with Brigadier-General Zsolt Polyák, the head of the Csongrád-Csanád County police in south-eastern Hungary, General Bondar Marin said most illegal crossings are attempted at the motorway crossing at Csanádpalota-Nadlac (Nagylak), where the authorities have detained 2,600 people in the Jan-Aug period this year. On the green border, joint Hungarian-Romanian units patrol 10km into the territory of both countries, he added.

Polyák also praised cooperation between Hungarian and Romanian police, and noted that while the police worked together, the migrants discovered at the Csanádpalota-Nadlac crossing fell under Romanian jurisdiction. So far this year the Romanian authorities have launched 105 procedures for people smuggling after the detection of 160 cases where illegal migrants had been hidden in the cargo hold of trailer trucks or in cars, he said.

Great experience and expertise is required to uncover border violators hiding in lorries, and this task has been made even more difficult given that freight traffic at the Csanadpalota crossing has grown by about 20 percent this year, he said.