Hungary is planning to place more permanent barriers on its borders following an increase in migrant activity, it has been reported.
The move follows reports of Serbian police foiling a people trafficker’s attempt to smuggle 44 migrants across the border to Hungary, AP has reported.
The group, consisting of migrants from Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Iran, was discovered in the Serbian border town of Subotica where they had arrived by a local bus.
Serbian police arrested three Afghans on charges of planning to smuggle the migrants across the border.
The closure of the Western Balkans route to migrants in March and the sealing of Hungary’s border with Serbia in autumn 2015 has left them with few options to reach Northern Europe.
Meanwhile, Hungary has begun reinforcing its wire fence on the border with Serbia as migrant arrivals increased after Greek authorities emptied the Idomeni camp on the country’s border with Macedonia last week, AFP reported.
The number of migrants trying to cross Hungary's border fence has increased from 70 to 90 people, to between 100 and 150 since Idomeni was evacuated, AFP quoted an advisor to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as saying on a national radio station.
To prevent irregular migrants from entering, the Hungarian government will put "permanent barriers" in places where the barbed wire is considered "no longer sufficient" to keep migrants out, according to the source in the Prime Minister's Office.