Roundup: Hungary, Serbia agree to jointly prevent illegal migrations

Hungary will assist Serbia in protecting its southern borders as the migrant crisis is likely to repeat in the following months, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic agreed here on Monday.

The two prime ministers expressed their readiness to cooperate in the fight against illegal migration in the future during a press conference.

Vucic said Hungarian army and police will assist their Serbian colleagues at Serbia's border with Bulgaria in the same way as the two countries protected Serbia's border with Macedonia.

"We see Hungary as a friendly country and any form of technological, technical as well as personnel support is welcome," he said.

Vucic said Serbia will not accept more illegal migrants, noting that the "situation is different from the beginning of the (migrant) crisis" as more than 80 percent of the migrants now are economic ones, coming from Afghanistan.

"We will show solidarity and humanity as a government -- but we cannot accept any more illegal migrants," Vucic said.

According to Vucic, his country's spending on dealing with the migrant issue has exceed funds that it received from the European Union(EU) for that purpose.

Last year, more than 700,000 migrants crossed Serbian territory on their way to the EU fleeing from armed conflicts in Syria, Middle East and Africa, while some 5,000 new migrants are currently located in Serbia.

Orban said that the agreement between EU and Turkey is "loose" and that last year's scenario is likely to repeat in the following months.

"It is in our best interest that not a single person enters Serbia illegally, because in that case we increase our own safety," he said.

"We seek for a solution for Serbia to protect its territory and citizens," Orban said. Enditem