Hungary Says Croatia Border Closing Hinges on Result of EU Talks

“The issue of assistance to Hungary [on border protection from undocumented immigrants] was raised at a separate meeting of the heads of Interior Ministries of Visegrad Group [V4] countries on the sidelines of the meeting of [EU interior] ministers in Luxembourg…”

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. The number of migrants who crossed into Hungary from the western Balkans reached 330,000 this year and may rise to as many as 600,000 by the end of 2015, he said.

The Hungarian government has invested more than €100 mln – triple the amount the state spends yearly on receiving asylum seekers – on measures to keep refugees and migrants out of the country, including razor-wire fencing and extra border controls, Amnesty global (AI) says in a report published yesterday entitled “Fenced Out“.

“Personally I think this (the closure) is inevitable”, Lazar said.

Because of that fence, the flow of migrants from Serbia has dropped steeply. Their tasks may include participating in joint exercises as well as supporting Hungarian troops on the border, but they will not be directly policing the border.

Hungary may close its border with Croatia, even if Austria and Germany want Budapest to refrain from such a move, Mr. Lazar said.

Hungary’s relationship with its Balkan neighbor has soured in recent weeks.

People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija, on Thursday, October 8, 2015. “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 European Union countries.