- Title: Hungary would have to "use force" to fend off new wave of migrants -PM
- Date: 17th October 2019
- Summary: ROSZKE, HUNGARY (FILE - JUNE 4, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BORDER FENCE AT HUNGARIAN/SERBIAN BORDER
- Embargoed: 31st October 2019 11:42
- Keywords: Hungary migrants in Europe Turkey Eastern Europe Serbia borbers Viktor Orban Syrian refugees migrants
- Location: BUDAPEST AND ROSZKE, HUNGARY
- City: BUDAPEST AND ROSZKE, HUNGARY
- Country: Hungary
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA002B1HKFGN
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Hungary would have to "use force" at its southern border with Serbia to protect the European Union's frontier if Turkey delivers on a threat to open the gates for refugees through the Balkans towards Europe, Hungary's prime minister said on Wednesday (October 16).
Prime Minister Viktor Orban built a steel fence on Hungary's border with Serbia to seal off the Balkans route of migration, where hundreds of thousands of people marched through from the Middle East to Western Europe at the peak of the crisis in 2015.
The EU relies on Turkey to curb the arrival of refugees into Europe following a 2016 agreement to seal off the Aegean route after more than 1 million people entered the bloc.
Turkey, which hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, threatened to "open the gates" to allow those already in the country to head for Europe if the EU portrayed Turkey's incursion into northeast Syria negatively.
Orban, who has often been at loggerheads with Brussels over some of his policies affecting migrants, said currently there were about 90,000 people on the Balkans migration route and their ranks could swell to 100,000 shortly.
(Production: Krizsta Fenyo) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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