OREANDA-NEWS “The migrants are keeping the Hungarian-Serbian border under intense pressure”, the Prime Minister’s Chief Advisor on Homeland Security said on Kossuth Radio’s “Sunday Magazine” programme.

Mr. Gy?rgy Bakondi said: “Although the ‘classical Balkan route’ is now closed to migration, people traffickers are looking for new routes and accordingly illegal immigrants are arriving at the Hungarian-Serbian border from two directions: via Turkey and Bulgaria on the one hand, and via Macedonia on the other”.

“The Hungarian authorities are experiencing an intensive movement of illegal border crossers, some 18 thousand people have already attempted to cross the Hungarian-Serbian border illegally this year”, he stressed.

Mr. Bakondi reminded the press that Hungary had introduced so-called “deep border controls” on 5 July. Migrants who are apprehended and who are not proven to have committed a crime are accompanied back to one of the gates along the border security fence and given directions to the nearest transit zone.

Some 2800 attempts to illegally cross the border have occurred since then, 1700 of which were prevented, meaning 1100 people were accompanied back to the border. They are currently waiting for people traffickers on the other side of the border, or to submit requests for asylum”, he said.

Mr. Bakondi stressed that the level of terrorist threat in Hungary was re-evaluated in view of the attacks in Nice and Munich, and the conclusion was that these events do not have a direct effect on homeland security and accordingly there is no need to raise the terrorist threat level.

“However, the Hungarian authorities continue to cooperate intensively with international organisations”, he added.