Hungary has been seeing a lot of migration pressure at its Southern border for years. However, it seems that due to the hard work of Serbian and Hungarian border patrol agents, that pressure has been eased. At least that is the case according to the on-scene reporting by Euronews.com from the Serb side of the border.
A reporter from the Lyon, France-based news site visited the small town of Horgos (Horgoš), Serbia, in the region of Vojvodina, an area heavily populated with ethnic Hungarians. Horgos lies just about 1.5 miles (2.33 kilometres) South of the Hungarian border.
Just outside of town, the abandoned Kárász farm used to be where illegal migrants, mostly coming from the Middle East and Africa, congregated by the hundreds for years. A year ago, however, Serbian law enforcement started to systematically visit the site and forcefully transfer any migrant with no authentic paperwork to two camps in Kikinda, a city near the Romanian, and Preševo, a city near the North Macedonian border.
Euronews have spoken to two local residents, Martha and László.
According to Martha, Serbian law enforcement agents would regularly arrive at the Main Square of Horgos with buses to transport migrants in. However, about a month ago, that practice was stopped as the camp had been cleared. Meanwhile, László told the site that there had been an increase in crime while the migrants were occupying the area. He particularly recalls one incident, which Hungarian Conservative reported on as well, when a shooting broke out between the migrants and human smugglers in October 2023.
‘The Hungarian and Serbian governments have been closely cooperating on border protection’
Today, the Kárász farm stands abandoned again, pummelled by weeds, with no migrants in sight, Euronews claims in its reporting.
The Hungarian and Serbian governments have been closely cooperating on border protection. Also in October 2023, the border patrol agencies of the two parties agreed to formally cooperate with each other, and that the Hungarian agents would not transfer migrants back to the Serbian side during night-time, when less staff is on duty.
Earlier that year, in July 2023, President Aleksandar Vučić of Serbia attended a migration summit in Vienna, Austria with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Chancellor Karl Nehammer of Austria, along with the domestic and law enforcement leaders of their respective countries, to discuss how to tackle the migration crisis in Europe.
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