The Hungarian State spent HUF 80 billion on the management of the migrant crisis last year, the Prime Minister’s chief advisor for internal security said in answer to a question at a press conference held on Friday in Budapest.
György Bakondi highlighted that, after the closure of the Western-Balkans route, migrants can only enter Western-Europe with a valid Schengen visa. This also means that a large number of refugees and migrants are stuck in the countries of the Western-Balkans route, he added.
The chief advisor said that there are 36,000 illegal migrants in Greece, and 2,000 to 3,000 more are arriving at the Greek islands from Turkey daily. At the Greek-Macedonian border at Idomeni some 15,000 people are stuck. There are 1,500 migrants in Macedonia, 2,000 in Serbia, and 500 in Croatia. Their future is uncertain for the time being, he said.
At the same time, there are 2.7 million Syrians living in Turkey, their number has increased by 600,000 since January, and Syrian and Iraqi refugees found shelter in large numbers in Kurdish territories in Syria, Mr Bakondi pointed out.
Meanwhile, the Turkish minister responsible for migration said in his latest statement that they will not take back those who have already reached the Greek islands, he added.
He further told the press that, in addition to Austrian, Czech and Polish police personnel, members of the Hungarian police, too, will help the work of the Macedonian law enforcement agencies at the Macedonian-Greek border as of mid-March.
There is a possibility that the migrants and human traffickers will start looking for new routes towards Albania and in the direction of Bulgaria and Romania, he said.
There are 2,220 migrants staying in Hungary in communal accommodation, at guarded facilities and in alien police custody. There was a high number of illegal border crossing incidents between January and March once again, but in the last two days only 20 illegal border crossers have been taken into custody by the authorities on each day, Mr Bakondi informed the press.
The uncut version of the video recordings made at the event can be downloaded in the Press Room.