Tougher Hungarian refugee laws come into effect

The ministers also agreed to implement a network of refugee camps which would be set up initially in Italy and Greece – where most refugees enter through – and later would be expanded overseas, in Middle Eastern and African countries.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has indicated that asylum requests from migrants trying to enter Hungary from Serbia will be rejected because Serbia is a safe country where migrants do not risk war or persecution.

The legislation makes it a crime to try to breach a razor-wire fence along the border with Serbia and also includes longer prison terms for convicted human traffickers. On Monday, 7,437 asylum-seekers had entered the country, in comparison with 5,809 arrivals during the previous day.

“Hurry up! They’re letting us through!” some shouted in Arabic at a checkpoint near Roszke, Hungary, as police blocked a rail line where thousands had entered the country, funneling the migrants to waiting buses.

Hungarian officials closed two of seven border crossings with Serbia Tuesday morning.

On Sunday, however, Germany reimposed border controls.

The Balkan state’s minister for refugees, Aleksandar Vulin, urged Hungary to reopen its border, “at least for women and children“, speaking to AFP at the Horgos crossing, where around a hundred people were waiting for the frontier to reopen.

A migrant sits on the ground arrested by Hungarian authorities after he tried to cross the border between Serbia and Hungary in Roszke, Hungary, September 15, 2015.

The country has declared a state of emergency in response to the migration crisis and sent in the army to man the border. By the end of the year, it might take in 1 million migrants, its vice chancellor said.

The laws also make it a criminal offence to damage the newly installed razor-wire fence along Hungary’s 175km border with Serbia.

Social media reports say refugees stuck on the border are holding banners, saying “No food no water until open border.”

If the fence does prove too hard to cross, many people may loop round to cross through Hungary’s still nearly unguarded borders with Romania (450km) or Croatia (350km).

A total of 4,537 asylum seekers reached Germany by train on Monday despite the imposition of new controls at the border with Austria, German police said on Tuesday.

Germany and Austria on Tuesday called for an European Union summit on the crisis next week. “We will stop the inflow of illegal migrants over our green borders”.

With Europe’s 20-year-old Schengen passport-free zone creaking under the pressure, Austria and Slovakia said they would follow economic powerhouse Germany’s lead in reinstating frontier controls to deal with the flow of people.

European Union interior ministers failed to reach unanimous agreement Monday on a plan to share out 120,000 refugees.