Hungary has started building a wall along its southern border with Serbia with the intention of keeping illegal migrants out.
The wall, to be 4 meters high, has been explained as temporary and a “sample section” which will run for 150 meters, according to the country’s state television. It is believed that the ultimate intention is to seal the entire 175 km border.
Tens of thousands of migrants, mainly from the Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, use the Balkans route to get into the EU, travelling through Greece, Macedonia and Serbia and then into Hungary.
So far some 70,000 migrants have been registered by Hungary this year. For the whole of last year the number was 43,000.
“A daily average of 1,000 illegal border crossers are arriving in Hungary, so illegal immigration has become a severe problem and its control a prominent task,” a joint statement from the interior and defence ministries said.
Most migrants try to carry on from Hungary into richer EU lands. EU rules, however, permit countries to return migrants to their first country of entry and the Hungarian authorities are fearful that this could happen to them.
Shelters in Hungary and Austria are already overcrowded. Last month Hungarian police used tear gas to quell a fight involving hundreds of migrants.
