Image 01 Image 03

Refugee Crisis Update: Hungary Under Fire Over Sealed Borders

Refugee Crisis Update: Hungary Under Fire Over Sealed Borders

Devolving

Officials in Hungary are fielding criticism after authorities declared a state of crisis all along the country’s southern border with Serbia. The border is now sealed, which means that migrants caught crossing into Hungary are doing so illegally; so far officials have detained 60 people, with more arrests expected. The state of emergency also expands police power and paves the way for troop deployment should the situation spiral out of control.

Hungary has set up a “transit zone” alone the border for the purposes of screening migrants attempting to enter the country; only those who have applied for asylum will be allowed to enter.

More from the New York Times:

As of Tuesday afternoon, Hungary said 48 migrants in the transit zone had applied for asylum, with 13 rejected and the rest under review — a tiny fraction of the number of migrants at the border.

Hungarian officials said they were preparing to erect a fence along the country’s eastern border with Romania that would be similar to the one on the Serbian border.

Speaking from the border village of Horgos, Serbia’s labor minister, Aleksandar Vulin, told the Serbian broadcaster B92 that the situation could “spiral out of control.” He called for Hungary to open the border and for refugees to be allowed to seek asylum in Hungary. He said that migrants were arriving from all directions and that 1,000 were stranded “in no man’s land.”

Mr. Vulin said Serbia would provide food, water and transportation to temporary shelters, but he added that the crisis could not be solved without Hungary’s cooperation.

Migrants stuck at the border threatened on Tuesday to conduct a hunger strike. About 200 migrants chanted “Open, open, open!” and “Germany! Germany!”

The problem doesn’t exist in Serbia alone. If migrants attempt to change their route to bypass Serbia, officials are prepared to extend control zones to stem the changing flow; Hungarian officials have threatened to extend their border fence along the Romanian border as well.

The Guardian posted a map with the border areas in question highlighted:

hungary serbia romania map guardian

Austria is also preparing for the possibility of losing the Hungarian buffer.

Meanwhile, officials in western Europe are calling for an EU-wide solution to the growing crisis:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Austria called Tuesday for a special European Union summit next week to discuss the continent’s immigration crisis.

But their slow deliberations appeared disconnected from the rapidly shifting situation on the most besieged borders of Europe, where Austria, Slovakia and even the Netherlands joined Germany in reintroducing border controls for the first time in a generation in a bid to record the arrivals of thousands daily from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

The checks, involving police on trains and on border roads, snarled traffic and slowed the speed and volume of refugees reaching Germany, which had received more than 60,000 newcomers since throwing opens its borders Sept. 5 to people trying to reach the E.U. heavyweight via Hungary, the Balkans and Greece.

Germany’s decision to deploy police on borders and trains could trigger “a domino effect and then we can forget Schengen,” he said, referring to the 1985 agreement that gradually removed passport checks on most European borders.

We’ll keep you updated on the situation as it evolves.

Follow Amy on Twitter @ThatAmyMiller

DONATE

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.

Comments

Wait…. that picture ISN’T between Mexico and USA?

hmm mmm mmm

Hey WORLD, solve your OWN border crisis… USA has their own……. thanks mucho!!

Western Civilization has deteriorated to the point that we may see a shooting war among its members before those members are able to act in concert against the muslim invaders.

    Arminius in reply to Rick. | September 16, 2015 at 7:45 pm

    Putin is a smart guy, isn’t he? He always wanted to destroy the NATO alliance. And now that he’s in Syria he can turn this spigot on and off at will.

Hungary has long experience at being a well-run country, even despite interference by the Russians, and going back before WWI.

They avoided the HIV epidemic by tracing contacts, and frankly counseling the infected individuals.

They can look at these people and see that this is not a flood of refugees.

Seems to me that all of these young men could have raised an army and fought for their country. This entire thing is BS.

    Arminius in reply to namvet1969. | September 16, 2015 at 8:20 pm

    Why would they fight for a M.E. hellhole when they can simply invade and take over a nice, compliant, developed nation without fighting?

    Sure, relative to the other European nations Hungary is a tough nut to crack. But others like Germany and Sweden can’t wait to embrace their new overlords.

    Of the two, these hordes of military aged males will no doubt enjoy Sweden the most. They won’t have to work as they can live off the government and they can quite literally rape with impunity. Stockholm is the rape capital of Europe. And Muslim immigrants might get probation, if they get penalized at all. Swedish courts have let Muslim rapists off entirely for reasons such as the rapists claimed the sex was consensual. We’re talking gang rapes, where the woman was beaten bloody. The court accepted the notion the woman agreed to that. They actually refused to deport one Somali rapist for, get this, his life would be in danger from the family of a woman he raped in Somalia.

    It’s even illegal to point out that Muslim immigrants are doing the raping. If you point that out, you will be arrested for “expressing disrespect for a group of people with reference to their national or ethnic background.” Free speech and truth are not defenses against that particular crime of wrong speak. So when they authorities try to attribute the incredible rise of rapes during the Summer months (it’s too cold to do much raping in Winter, especially if you’re from a Middle Eastern desert nation) to politically acceptable factors they attribute them to warm weather, internet dating sites, alcohol, and that women are more willing to report rapes. And as far as the Swedish government is concerned there are no other conceivable factors and to suggest any is to risk arrest.

    http://www.patcondell.net/sweden-ship-of-fools-2/

    Arminius in reply to namvet1969. | September 16, 2015 at 8:31 pm

    The rapists are officially described as “ordinary Swedish men.”

    I s*** you not. Because it would be illegal to attribute the massive increase in rapes in Sweden to an aggressive, foreign, unassimible group of people. And the left intentionally turns a blind eye. I recall a leading member of the Social Democrats saying words to the effect that if the debate is going to be about problems with refugees and immigrants, “we don’t want it.”

    Which is why they criminalized such debate.

    http://www.patcondell.net/sweden-goes-insane/

    http://www.patcondell.net/sweden-goes-insane-2/

    Note these videos aren’t due to the recent immigrant flood. They’re a year old.

buckeyeminuteman | September 16, 2015 at 1:54 pm

The Germanic kingdoms set up Austria (Osterreich – Eastern Kingdom) to serve as a buffer between their “superior” culture and that of the Slavic peoples. It seems the modern-day rulers of Germany have forgotten their history and the importance of keeping people who don’t share the same values and culture as they do out.