Migration pressure along the border between Serbia and Hungary is ongoing and increasing, Gyorgy Bakondi, the Hungarian prime minister’s chief advisor on domestic security, told a news conference here on Friday.
People smuggling, he said, was on the rise despite Hungarian police having apprehended 1,176 people smugglers last year and 121 so far in 2016. The smugglers, for the most part, bring refugees through the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and up to the Serbian-Hungarian border, charging about 1,000 euros(1,113.5 U.S. dollars) per refugee, Bakondi said. Hungary, he added, has sent police to FYROM and Greece to help reduce the flow.
So far this year, 17,052 people have applied for asylum in Hungary, Bakondi said.
In all, 2,698 people have been sentenced to expulsion. Of the 1,031 who have not applied for asylum, 516 have already been expelled, he said.
Overall, Bakondi said, 3,300 people had entered Hungary illegally by cutting through the fence in March and 4,200 in April.