Serbia Prevents Attempt to Smuggle Migrants to Hungary, Budapest Reinforcing Border Fence

Migrants stand by the border fence in a makeshift camp near the Horgos border crossing into Hungary, near Horgos, Serbia, 27 May 2016. Several hundred migrants wanting to enter Hungary are stranded on the Serbian side of the border. Photo EPA/BGNES

Serbian police have thwarted a people trafficker’s attempt to smuggle 44 migrants across the border to Hungary, AP reported on Monday.

The group, consisting of migrants from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Iran, was discovered in the Serbian border town of Subotica where they had arrived by a local bus.

Serbian police arrested three Afghans on charges of planning to smuggle the migrants across the border.

The closure of the Western Balkans route to migrants in March and the sealing of Hungary’s border with Serbia in autumn 2015 has left asylum seekers with little options to reach Northern Europe.

Meanwhile, Hungary has begun reinforcing its wire fence on the border with Serbia as migrant arrivals increased after Greek authorities emptied Idomeni camp on the country’s border with Macedonia last week, AFP reported on Monday.

The number of migrants trying to cross Hungary's border fence has increased from 70 to 90 people, to between 100 and 150 since Idomeni was evacuated, AFP quoted an advisor to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as saying on a national radio station.

To prevent irregular migrants from enetering, the Hungarian government will put "permanent barriers" in places where the barbed wire is considered "no longer sufficient" to keep migrants out, according to Orban’s aide.

 

 

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