Interior ministers of Austrian, Hungarian and Serbian agree to cooperate on immigration

The interior ministers of Austria, Hungary and Serbia signed a memorandum of understanding in Budapest on Tuesday in order to closely cooperate on curbing the extraordinary migratory pressure affecting all three countries.

The ministers agreed that their countries would further enhance the ongoing trilateral Austrian-Hungarian-Serbian cooperation since 2011 in the field of border control and the fight against human trafficking.

The countries immediately organize regular joint patrols along the Serbian-Hungarian and the Serbian-Macedonian border sections in Serbia, the document said. The ministers also agreed to set up a joint investigation team in order to eliminate the organized crime groups aiding people smuggling.

Hungary's Interior Minister Sandor Pinter said at a joint press conference that a total of 67,000 people had requested refugee status in Hungary this year. Many migrants can only be accommodated in tents and modified containers, he added.

Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said that Austria has become the number one target country. Every day more than 40,000 migrants have to be accommodated in Austria and it is predicted that this number will increase to 70,000 by the end of the year, she added. Mikl-Leitner said that last year 500 asylum applications were submitted by Kosovars every day in Austria, today only 10-20 arrived. She thanked her Hungarian and Serbian colleagues for helping Austria in stopping this wave of immigration.

Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said that this year the number of migrants passing through Serbia had increased about three to four-fold compared to last year, and this meant huge economic pressure. More than 220,000 migrants stay currently in Serbia, he said, adding that Serbia's task is to protect its own and external borders of the Schengen area. Endite