Hungary's move to oppose EU attempts to compel them to accept returned migrants or to introduce a quota regime has angered its neighbor, Austria.
Austria's interior minister has said that Vienna would take Hungary to court if it refuses to take back migrants who, under European rules widely ignored since last year, are meant to seek asylum in the first European Union state in which they set foot, reports Reuters.
Officials in Austria and Hungary say the situation is largely under control a year after their shared border became a focal point of a mass influx of refugees to Europe, many of them heading for Germany.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants traveled from southern European countries further north to Austria, Germany or Sweden -- many of them after the German government sent signals that Germany would receive them -- making it impossible to implement the so-called Dublin rules to send migrants back to their initial arrival point in the EU.
Countries in central and eastern Europe, including Hungary, have opposed any European attempts to force states to accept returned migrants or to introduce a quota regime.
Following last year's breach of the Dublin protocol rules by several EU countries, the Hungarian government has declared the Dublin agreement finished and continues to protect the security of its nation for its people.