György Bakondi, Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of Hungary, was a guest at the morning show Mokka on the Hungarian commercial channel TV2 on Friday, 3 January. During his appearance, he shared with the audience that nearly 16,000 illegal border crossers were apprehended at the border by Hungarian authorities in 2024.
132 human smugglers were also taken into custody, he added.
Last year, the Balkan route—Greece, the islands, and the green border—saw an increase in the number of irregular migrants arriving. As a result of the joint police action with the Serbian authorities, a shift towards Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia was observed during the year, the expert said.
The number of arrivals also increased on the Spanish route. Italy, on the other hand, has taken serious steps to curb illegal migration, with agreements made with the African nations of Tunisia, Morocco, and Libya to screen and detain those planning to leave.
‘Nearly 16,000 illegal border crossers and 132 human smugglers were apprehended at the border by Hungarian authorities in 2024’
In addition, a new solution has been developed: those rescued outside coastal waters will be transported to Albania to apply for asylum, and only those who are granted refugee status will be allowed to enter Italy, Bakondi explained, summing up the trends of the past year.
He also stressed that last year, a number of negative phenomena related to illegal migration emerged across Europe: terrorist acts, ‘rampages’, deteriorating public security, a rise in so-called ‘no-go zones’, and tensions in the social security systems.
The expert went on to say that predictions for 2024 which claimed that illegal migration problems would continue if the European Union failed to revise its misguided policies since 2015 were proved correct.
At the same time, at the level of nation states, there have been visible changes due to events with serious consequences for internal security.
Bakondi stated that there is a growing consensus that external borders must be guarded and that every effort must be made to ensure that asylum applications are assessed outside the borders of the European Union and that only those who are truly eligible for political asylum are allowed to enter. Unfortunately, we do not see any movement towards this at the EU level, he added.
According to Bakondi, there are plans to take Hungary to court over the fine imposed for its migration policy. He also said that the administration is constantly monitoring developments in Syria. If the internal situation does not move towards stability, many people may leave, and the previous conflict has shown that the main direction of travel is towards the Balkans and Hungary.
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