Immigration office under pressure

Budapest (MTI) – The Hungarian immigration office has increased the number of employees processing asylum applications since last year but is facing huge pressure to handle a dramatic increase in applications over the past few months, the daily Magyar Nemzet said on Saturday.

Currently around 25,000 applications are being processed 134 administrators (34 more than last year), the paper said, citing information from the office.

The number of applications received by the office was only 2,157 in 2012, 18,900 in 2013 but then jumped to 42,700 in 2014. Since the start of 2015, fully 73,144 migrants have lodged applications, it told the paper.

Last year the applications were processed by 100 people, twice as many as in 2012 and 2013.

There is a team of 26 professional officials supervising the procedure in the office’s headquarters, the paper said.

The immigration authority recently got the go-ahead to hire 132 people under the state’s fostered jobs scheme. They will be tasked with administration duties and provide help to social workers employed in reception centres, the paper said.

Photo: MTI

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