BUDAPEST—Hungary has reached an agreement with the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia to jointly patrol its southern borders to deal with the rising number of migrants from war-torn areas of the Middle East and Afghanistan trying to cross its frontiers.

At the same time, the government in Budapest is considering closing its border with Croatia and is working to fence off its neighbor to prevent migrants from entering its territory that way. In August, Hungary completed a razor-wire fence along its 110-mile border with Serbia, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from human-rights groups, European Union politicians and Pope Francis.

So far this year, more than 330,000 migrants have crossed Hungary, a major transit country, en route from Turkey and Greece to more-affluent countries such as Austria and Germany.

That number could reach 600,000 this year if current migration trends continue, Janos Lazar, head of the Hungarian prime minister's office, said Thursday at a weekly press briefing.

The Czech Republic will send several dozen troops and technical equipment to help Hungary patrol its southern borders, while earlier this week Poland deployed a helicopter with crew to help Budapest patrol its border with Croatia, said Mr. Lazar.

At present, Croatia is directing about 6,000 migrants a day into Hungary, which then transports them to places near the Austrian border—a de facto corridor leading to the more affluent parts of the bloc, Hungarian police data show. By contrast, the number of migrants arriving from Serbia is usually less than 100 a day, since the fence was completed.

Hungary may close its border with Croatia, even if Austria and Germany want Budapest to refrain from such a move, Mr. Lazar said. It expects to make the decision within a week, he added.

"People smuggling is going on with the active participation of the Croatian government—they direct the smugglers to the Hungarian border," Mr. Lazar said.

Hungary's relationship with its Balkan neighbor has soured in recent weeks. In a clear reference to Hungary, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said over the weekend that "I hope the others too would realize that wire fences aren't a solution" and that migrants would "eat the barbed-wire fence up."

Rejecting such criticism, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal that the EU is "paralyzed."

"Is there any point, intention, political will, possibility, physical capability to stop them and to shape it into a controlled and regulated process? That's the question. And the problem is that there's no unity on that question," Mr. Orban said, referring to various migration policies put forward by individual EU countries.

Write to Margit Feher at margit.feher@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 08, 2015 21:05 ET (01:05 GMT)