The Hungarian Defense Ministry said both the armed forces and Hungarian government would do all they could to defend the country’s border and maintain its border fence despite a new ruling from the European Court of Justice that Hungary illegally detained asylum seekers in transit zones.
The statement from Hungary comes at a time when the vital Western Balkans route has seen a sharp increase in crossing from illegal migrants. Despite a sharp fall in April due to the border closures prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, illegal border crossings in the Western Balkans rose by 60 percent in the first four months of the year compared with the same period of 2019, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex said in its April migration update.
“There were fewer than 100 detections of illegal border crossings recorded on this route in April, down 94% from the previous month. However, in the first four months, the number of illegal border crossings increased by 60% from the same period of last year to nearly 6,000,” the Frontex report wrote.
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