Hungary's chief security advisor has said that existing border protection measures are effective, therefore no new fence is required for the time being.
“Hungary would only begin extending the existing border security fence or constructing a new one if the main direction of illegal immigration were to move to another stretch of the border, with Romania or Ukraine," György Bakondi said.
“We are not seeing anything like this for the moment; the monitoring of the Romanian and Ukrainian borders is effective, thanks to cooperation between Hungarian and partner border security authorities," Bakondi added.
“We didn’t build the fence out of pleasure, but to ensure the security of Hungary’s population," he said.
“Although not to the degree experienced in 2015, but pressure along the Balkan migration route, where there are currently some 80,000 migrants, is unceasing, and the arrival of new migrants from the Greek islands is continuous. Thousands of people are attempting to cross the Hungarian border, and they would all end up reaching Western Europe were it not for the fence," Bakondi explained.
Bakondi said the Hungarian government would like to see some solidarity on the part of the European Union, because while the Bulgarian, Spanish, Greek and French fences are regarded as “good fences” by EU leaders, they continue to criticize the Hungarian fence.
“A few days ago George Soros ‘stepped out of his role of well-intentioned philanthropist’ and entered the political arena, but the Hungarian government will not bow to any pressure of this kind," Bakondi stressed.
He also spoke about the fact that while the EU is clearly doing nothing to prevent illegal immigration, every nation state has begun to protect itself and introduce various measures to stop migration.
“In many countries, recent elections have also indicated that citizens are not prepared to accept a series of moves that give up sovereignty and national culture," Bakondi concluded.