Hungary now coordinates with its Visegrad Four partners – Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic – about joint border controls to bolster Hungary’s southeastern frontier, which is the external border of Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone. In August, Hungary completed a razor-wire fence along its 110-mile border with Serbia, a move that has drawn sharp criticism from human-rights groups, European Union politicians and Pope Francis.
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“The fence clearly deters the migrants”, Lazar said.
Over 330,000 migrants have entered Hungary this year.
“Hungary’s plan is to defend its border with Croatia from the pressure of illegal migration, together with the V4 countries”, said Janos Lazar, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff.
Lazar said a decision about when to close the Croatian border to migrants would be made after talks over the next week with Austria, Germany and other countries.
“Personally I think this (the closure) is inevitable”, Lazar said.
The Czech Republic will increase the number of random checks on its border with Austria starting this weekend, the interior ministry said in a statement.
Hungary’s relationship with its Balkan neighbor has soured in recent weeks.
People help a wheelchair user board a train with others, heading towards Serbia, at the transit camp for refugees near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija, on Thursday, October 8, 2015.
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“Is there any point, intention, political will, possibility, physical capability to stop them and to shape it into a controlled and regulated process?”
