Felony proceedings launched in 35 cases for illegal border crossings

In the single day since tougher laws went into effect on illegal border crossings, Hungarian authorities have launched legal proceedings in 35 cases, Hungarian national police spokeswoman announced on Wednesday.

Viktoria Csiszer-Kovacs made the announcement in Szeged, a city close to the Serbian border, according to Hungarian News Agency MTI.

In all, 316 people were involved in police actions, 20 to 25 percent of whom were children. However, in most cases the action was limited to alien-processing, and not judicial, measures.

Csiszer-Kovacs said that the main border crossings from Serbia at Roszke were closed on Wednesday morning but that crossing was possible at nearby Tompa.

Joszef Seres of the Office of Immigration and Nationality said that they had received 171,920 applications since the start of the year, and that there currently were 698 people at reception facilities.

On Tuesday, the first day of the tighter rules, 94 people who had crossed over from Serbia had submitted asylum applications, he said. They included 13 families with small children and two elderly people.

Seres went on to say that 48 decisions had been made on applications on Tuesday, 19 of which were rejected. Seven people appealed. Endit