Hungary’s southern border is being protected by Hungarian, Slovak, Czech, Austrian and Turkish policemen

Hungary’s southern border is being protected by Hungarian, Slovak, Czech, Austrian and Turkish policemen, in an effort to improve the effectiveness of the effort, the interior minister said in Hercegszántó, in southern Hungary, on Monday.

Greeting Slovak and Hungarian policemen deployed to protect Hungary’s southern border, Sándor Pintér said their sacrifice would improve public safety in Slovakia by pushing back illegal migration.

He reiterated Hungary’s stance that illegal migration should be addressed outside the European Union’s borders and the bloc’s “lines of defence” should be pushed as far out as possible.

The Hungarian government is aware that Hungary is not capable of protecting all of Europe’s external borders, but it wants to set an example to other countries so that illegal migrants on their way to the EU could be stopped as far from the borders as possible, Pintér said.

Hungary is no longer alone with this way of thinking, he said, arguing that Lithuania and Poland have also set up fences on their borders. Meanwhile, Slovakia is sending 40 police officers to help patrol Hungary’s borders and continually contributes to Hungary’s border protection efforts, he added.