Hungary considers border fence to keep out migrants

[webfact]

Hungary considers border fence to keep out migrants
PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The Hungarian government is considering building a 4-meter-high (13-foot-high) fence along the border with Serbia to stop the flow of migrants reaching the country, the foreign minister said Wednesday.

The government has asked Interior Minister Sandor Pinter to present preparations for the plan by next Wednesday.

"The Hungarian government is committed to defending Hungary and defending the Hungarian people from the immigration pressure," Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said. "Hungary cannot allow itself to wait any longer. Naturally, we hope there will be a joint European solution."

Szijjarto said the fence along the 175-kilometer (109-mile) southern border with Serbia wouldn't contravene any of Hungary's international legal obligations. He said that the governments of Hungary and Serbia would hold a summit on July 1, when "we will inform our Serb friends ... in detail of the Hungarian measures."

For their part, Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic called on the EU to help his country guard its borders from the migrant surge.

"I'm asking all EU states to make an additional effort to protect Serbia's borders from where the migrants are coming, because they come from the EU countries — Greece and Bulgaria," Stefanovic said.

Hungary's foreign minister also said that, in line with a bill presented last week by lawmakers from the governing Fidesz party, the government was taking legal preliminary steps to designate all EU member and candidate countries as safe countries.

This step would allow Hungary, for example, from having to receive asylum seekers coming from Serbia or Greece, countries not considered by the EU to have the infrastructure necessary to guarantee their safety.

Szijjarto named the Greek-Turkish and the Bulgarian-Turkish borders as locations where similar fences have been built with the purpose of stopping migrants.

Since the second half of 2014, the number of migrants and asylum seekers entering Hungary, mostly across the southern border with Serbia, has risen markedly.

So far this year, more than 53,000 people have requested asylum in Hungary, up from under 43,000 in 2014 and 2,150 in 2012. More than 70 percent of asylum seekers over the past three months are from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, though the vast majority move further west to destinations like Germany and Sweden shortly after filing their asylum requests.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-06-18

[MaxYakov]

"But the problems run far deeper than the harrowing images of shipwrecks and body bags on European docks. As the number of asylum applicants soars, a European system put in place over decades to process, house and absorb people fleeing war and persecution is unraveling."

Ref: A global surge in refugees leaves Europe struggling to cope - The Washington Post, April 21, 2015

[little mary sunshine]

250 hungry German Shepsrds with handlers and AK47's

Much cheaper, more effective...hourly patrols!!

[geriatrickid]

Years ago, Hungarians were refugees fleeing to the west.

How times have changed............

[MaxYakov]

Years ago, Hungarians were refugees fleeing to the west.

How times have changed............

Yuh, let's hope the times stay changed. If you know what I mean and I think you do. BTW, I don't really believe that hope is a strategy.

[NeverSure]

Guardian June 17, 2015

"Hungary closes border with Serbia and starts building fence to bar migrants."

"Fence will be built along border with Serbia as number of migrants crossing into EU state rises 60-fold in three years."

Edit:

"Hungary to build 4-metre high, 175-km fence on Serbian border."

June 17, 2015, 1:23 pm

Edited June 18, 2015 by NeverSure

[wabothai]

all we need is more fences,

[Jonmarleesco]

'... Naturally, we hope there will be a joint European solution."' Keep hoping.

[Basil B]

We have a 22 mile wide ditch and that does not work...

[MaxYakov]

Guardian June 17, 2015

"Hungary closes border with Serbia and starts building fence to bar migrants."

"Fence will be built along border with Serbia as number of migrants crossing into EU state rises 60-fold in three years."

Edit:

"Hungary to build 4-metre high, 175-km fence on Serbian border."

June 17, 2015, 1:23 pm

What?! The not going to wait for the Environmental Impact study? They're not going to do one you say! They're not even going to send politicians on a junket to China to study the Great Wall? What is wrong with those Hungarians?

Edited June 18, 2015 by MaxYakov

[h90]

250 hungry German Shepsrds with handlers and AK47's

Much cheaper, more effective...hourly patrols!!

There should be still security specialists from Germany alive.

But I wouldn't underestimate the Serbians....

[Steely Dan]

all we need is more fences,

Given a choice between more fences and floods of illegal culture enriches the only question is barbed wire or electric?

[ourmanflint]

I don't think 4 metres is enough, better make it 6! In fact a fence from the Adriatic to the Black sea might be needed should Greece fall out of Europe next month.

[GaryAdriaenssens]

Yes, communism was hard and painful. Now they have another problem....... Build that fence as fast as possible is my modest advice.

[RickBradford]

a European system put in place over decades to process, house and absorb people fleeing war and persecution is unraveling."

Yes, they flee from places like Nigeria, Mali, the Gambia and Senegal, travel on motorised transport through several countries to get to Libya, board boats to cross the Mediterranean, turn their noses up at Greece, Macedonia and Serbia, want to carry on through Hungary until they can get to a well-known and well-off welfare state.

Many of them, if not most, are economic migrants pure and simple, and I wish the EU would abandon the fiction that they are all fleeing persecution and war. If that was the case, they would have gone to the peaceful country next door or just down the road. Once that truth has been established, it might be possible to develop some kind of coherent strategy to deal with them.

Australia has faced the same problem for years -- people claiming they are "fleeing persecution" in Afghanistan mysteriously appear just off the coast of Western Australia having traveled over 9,000 kilometers after travelling through numerous pleasant countries on the way.

I have nothing against economic migrants; but if we don't call them for what they are, the policy to deal with them will remain a mess.

[Olgabalonkabatova]

We have a 22 mile wide ditch and that does not work...

22 miles? And how long the border? 5000?

[ABCer]

MaxYakov is right, - "hope" is a poor strategy. Crossed fingers help a lot.

Especially if you cross three of them.