Hungary Agrees on Border-Patrol Pact With Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia
October 08 2015 - 9:20PM
Dow Jones News
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)
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