Hungarian gov't envisions building backup anti-migrant fence

The Hungarian government is ready to build a second, backup fence to keep out illegal migrants, should the number of people trying to enter Hungary start to grow again, Janos Lazar, the minister in charge of the Hungarian prime minister's office, reiterated here on Thursday.

To prevent new problems, the cabinet is proposing amendments to four laws that will combine to tighten official control of people who enter the country seeking asylum, he told a news conference.

Lazar said that the new laws would allow the detention of all persons submitting applications related to immigration including asylum applications since the time when they enter the country till their application is decided upon in a legally binding manner.

This will prevent people from applying for asylum or refugee status but then traveling to other European Union countries before their applications are decided upon, which has often resulted in people submitting applications in multiple countries.

This detention facility will be located at the border, Lazar said, and would be able to house 200-300 people in a container-like setting.

Migrants would be able to submit their applications through a judiciary procedure that would run without them having to leave the facility, Lazar said. Remote video conferencing will be used instead of in-person meetings.

He added that anyone entering the country illegally could be picked up and detained anywhere in the country under the new laws. Detention, he said, would no longer be limited to a zone within eight kilometers of the border.

There were over 400,000 illegal border crossings into Hungary in 2015 before a fence was built and border controls were tightened.

Despite the fence and the patrols, 29,432 people were registered who asked for asylum in Hungary, whereas 18,236 have been registered as illegal immigrants in 2016. Endit