Hungary erecting four-meter-high fence against migrants on its border with Serbia

The Hungarian Government wants to build a four-meter-high fence along its border with Serbia to stop the influx of illegal migrants. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced on 17 June that the Government has called on the Interior Ministry to design the appropriate project by next Wednesday, according to the MTI agency.

"Immigration is one of the most serious problems the European Union faces today," Szijjártó  said at a press conference, according to Reuters. "The EU states cannot afford to wait for a solution any longer."

"We’re talking about a section of the border that is 175 kilometers long that we can physically close off with a fence four meters high. Interior Minister Szijjártó has been instructed to design it," the Foreign Minister said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced last week that Hungary is prepared to close its border with Serbia due to the constantly growing number of refugees. He also said Belgrade is not sufficiently addressing the problem of illegal migrants traveling through Serbia and attempting to reach Western Europe through Hungary. Since the beginning of the year, 54 000 asylum-seekers have crossed the Serbian border into Hungary, and the Hungarian authorities anticipate that their number could increase by year-end to 130 000. Last year there were 43 000 asylum-seekers there compared to only 2 157 in 2012.

Currently approximately 70 % of these migrants are from Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria. Previously citizens of Kosovo predominated in migrant numbers.