EUROPE-MIGRANTS/HUNGARY Hungary receives European Commission support to tackle migrant tide

Record ID: 149067

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/HUNGARY Hungary receives European Commission support to tackle migrant tide
  • Date: 30th June 2015
  • Summary: SUBOTICA, SERBIA (JUNE 28, 2015) (REUTERS) MAKESHIFT MIGRANT CAMP IN FIELD MIGRANTS MIGRANT UNDER SLEEPING BAG ON GROUND MIGRANTS WALKING PAST MAN IN SLEEPING BAG MIGRANT LYING IN SLEEPING BAG MIGRANTS AT CAMPSITE (SOUNDBITE) (English) AFGHAN MIGRANT, HASHMAT, SAYING: "The Daesh [Islamic State] people and Taliban people, they killed...They killed some, they killed some hun
  • Embargoed: 15th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Hungary
  • Country: Hungary
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVADM7BISCW7WLMMJ197T3BKKPT3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Evening set over an empty field on Sunday (June 28) when groups of migrants from Afghanistan gathered in makeshift camp sites outside the Serbian city of Subotica, just off the border with Hungary.
    In the vast area around a desolate brick factory, hundreds of migrants camp out in sleeping bags, taking a few days rest before continuing their journey.
    One 18-year-old migrant who gave his name as Hashmat said he has been on the road for three months from Afghanistan. He has been staying in the fields near Subotica for six days and was getting ready to cross the border.
    "The Daesh [Islamic State] people and Taliban people, they killed...They killed some, they killed some hundreds of people, all of Afghanistan people, they left Afghanistan but Afghanistan have a lot of problems, don't have an education, people don't have got security," he said in broken English.
    Like thousands of other asylum-seekers who plan to cross the Serbian-Hungarian border illegally, the groups had taken a risky trip by boat to Turkey, then to Greece. From there, they came mostly on foot, though Macedonia to Serbia.
    To complete their journey, they first have to get through Hungary, which has stepped up police patrols after more than 67,000 illegal migrants crossed into the European Union via its border with Serbia in the first six months of this year.
    At the former brick factory, migrants said they were determined to make it to find what they hope would turn out to be a better life in Europe.
    "The situation in Afghanistan, it is clear for all the people and also I have some problem about the country and I don't study my lesson in a school in the situation and also in society I can't live in good relaxing, comfortable like other people that live in the foreign countries, that they live so comfortable. We have some problems but...In a week suicide attack and also... Every problem with security and I can't continue my lesson in a school because of that I come to foreign country like Germany, to improve our lesson and I have a better life in the future," a 14-year-old Afghan migrant travelling without his family said.
    Only about three kilometres away, in the floodplains of the Tisza river, which for a long stretch runs along the border, abandoned camp sites littered with pieces of clothing and discarded diapers mark the path of migrants, most of whom fled from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
    After dawn on Monday (June 29), shortly before 7am, a group of 30-40 men, women and children from Afghanistan crossed through the bushes across a trench illegally into Hungary, near the Hungarian village of Asotthalom.
    After walking for about four hours, they finally set foot in Hungary. They don't want to talk and quickly disappear on a dirt road.
    Away from the border in capital Budapest on Tuesday (June 30) the European Commission has offered to help set up temporary centres for the Hungarian government to process asylum requests and the return of illegal immigrants as the country struggles to cope with a surge of foreigners crossing its borders.
    The EC's senior official on migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, also expressed support for the government's plan to build a fence along the Serbian border to fend off the tide.
    "Europe will always support front-line member states and Hungary is a front-line member state," Avramopoulos told a news conference with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
    Hungary is in the European Union's Schengen visa-free travel zone and thus has become an attractive destination for tens of thousands of migrants entering Europe through the Balkans from the Middle East and Africa. Most then move on to wealthier western Europe.
    On Tuesday morning, 567 migrants crossed into Hungary, Szijjarto said.
    Avramopoulos pledged nearly 8 million euros in aid and various other measures for Hungary.
    "It is true to say that Hungary is under pressure. We were talking so far about Italy and Greece. Now we added Hungary," he said.
    The commission had offered the possibility of setting up "hot spot" tents to help in the swift processing of asylum requests and the return of illegal migrants. These will include experts from the European Asylum Support Office and other agencies.
    Szijjarto said the list of actions was a "constructive" step. But Hungary stood by its plan to build a 175 km (110 mile) fence along the Serbian border to keep out migrants, who have cost it $56 million this year.
    The interior ministers of Serbia, Austria and Hungary are set to meet meet later on Tuesday to discuss how controls could be stepped up on the Serbian-Macedonian and the Serbian-Hungarian borders, Szijjarto said.
    Hungary's interior minister has also submitted legislation to parliament to accelerate the processing of asylum requests and deport those filing for such protection without proper justification.
    Hungary says only about 8 to 9 of a hundred requests for political asylum are justified.
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