On Monday György Bakondi, Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, told public television channel M1 that three Acts were amended by Parliament that day. This development serves to improve the effectiveness of border protection measures along Hungary’s borders – including its external Schengen border – and thus improves security in Hungary and in the European Union as well.
Mr. Bakondi stressed that within eight kilometres of the border Hungarian authorities are successfully apprehending almost one hundred per cent of people crossing Hungary’s borders illegally; experience has shown that these people often behave aggressively.
On Monday Parliament decided on the extension of asylum procedures conducted on the border. Mr. Bakondi said that this measure can assist in preventing masses of migrants staying in Hungary illegally, and the burden on reception centres will also be reduced.
Mr. Bakondi explained that when the police have sufficient proof of someone crossing the border illegally they will still be subject to criminal proceedings and will be brought before a court. He added that the amendment was necessary because in many cases a crime cannot be proved to have taken place, and the majority of migrants who have been taken to open camps have left the facilities without waiting for their asylum requests to be processed.
The Minister of Interior’s Parliamentary State Secretary Károly Kontrát explained that migrants who have committed only misdemeanours but not crimes – having crossed an already breached part of the security fence or having crossed the border while hiding in a railway vehicle – and who are apprehended by the authorities within 8 kilometres of the border, will be accompanied back to the their point of entry, where they can submit a request for asylum if they wish. The amendment enables rapid processing without the need to expel those involved, the State Secretary added, saying that the main goal of the new measure is to prevent people remaining in Hungary illegally.