Twenty Hungarian police officers have set off to Serbia for the protection of the Serbian-Bulgarian border, National Police Chief Károly Papp has said.
Papp pointed out that external Schengen borders must be protected and the related necessary measures and resources must be coordinated.
He added that since 2015, Hungary has provided police assistance to a number of countries in border protection, including Serbia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece.
“Today it has become just natural that Central European and the Balkan countries help each other in monitoring the Balkan route," Papp said and noted that international cooperation continues in Hungary, too. Hungarian, German and Austrian police officers, for instance, are jointly checking passenger trains.
Since January 2016, 18,028 illegal border crossers have been apprehended along the external Schengen borders of Hungary. 97 percent of migrants arrived at the Hungarian-Serbian border, and the same proportion of them have entered EU territory in Greece or Bulgaria.
Based on the above, it is clear that migration pressure continues, Papp said.
He added that over the weekend, some 393 migrants have attempted to enter Hungary. Criminal proceedings have been launched in 227 cases for people smuggling and there are currently eight people smuggler organizations under investigation.