Hungary ready to increase contribution to protection of Serbian-North Macedonian border

Hungary is prepared to increase its contribution to the protection of the Serbia-North-Macedonia border in technology and personnel, to improve the protection of the border against illegal migration, the foreign minister said in Belgrade on Thursday.

After meeting the Serbian finance, foreign and interior ministers and Austria’s foreign and interior ministers in Belgrade, Péter Szijjártó said that by protecting their own borders, those countries also protected Europe. The already existing cooperation should be stepped up to adapt to growing numbers of migrants, he told a joint press conference.

While the line of defence is currently on the Hungarian-Serbian border, it would be beneficial for all countries to shift it further south, he said. “We have to create a large, strong and effective border protection force in order to protect the border between Serbia and North Macedonia, and Hungary is ready to contribute to the maximum of its abilities,” Szijjártó said.

Meanwhile, Hungary is under double pressure, Szijjártó said. It has taken in some 1.5 million refugees since the start of the war in Ukraine even as its “southern border is also under siege,” he said. “That is no exaggeration, since people smugglers and migrants on the southern borders have armed themselves and do not hesitate to use live ammunition to fire at each other and the policemen protecting the Hungarian border,” he said.

So far, 195,000 illegal migrants have been stopped on the border this year alone, up from 85,000 in the same period last year and from 5,000 in 2018, he said.

Read alsoHungary ready to increase contribution to protection of Serbian-North Macedonian border

The root causes have become graver, “because in addition to the EU’s pro-migration policy, there is now the global economic recession and the food crisis caused by the [Russia-Ukraine] war and the [EU] sanctions,” he said. The number of illegal migrants is expected to grow further and increase the pressure on the borders, he said.