The “strongest possible action is taken against those who attempt to enter Hungary illegally”, the piece in the An-Nahar said.
Advertisement
The announcement added that “crossing Hungary’s worldwide borders illegally, according to Hungarian law, is a crime punishable by a prison sentence”, adding, “Do not listen to the people-smugglers”.
Hungary has built a razor-wire fence along the entire length of its border with Serbia and last week hastily erected a barrier along the 41 kilometres (25 miles) of its border with Croatia which is not formed by the hard-to-cross Drava river.
AP noted in its report that Lebanon has almost 1.2 million Syrian refugees and Jordan about 630,000, “some of whom have expressed interest in migrating to Europe because of dwindling aid and work opportunities”.
In Turkey overnight, about 700 mainly Syrians who waited at Istanbul’s main bus station for a week after authorities suspended ticket sales to the northwestern town of Edirne, set out to walk the 150 mile distance to the town, near the Greek border, in an effort to reach Europe, Agence France-Presse reported.
Hungary’s ads were not the first.
Denmark’s Ministry of Immigration, Integration and Housing posted similar notices in Lebanese newspapers earlier this month, announcing that it had recently halved social aid to refugees. Denmark also warned that migrants whose applications are rejected will be deported immediately.
Syria’s civil war has killed an estimated 250,000 people, and many continue to flee their homes, with 4 million refugees and another 7.6 million displaced inside the country. But this, he warned, leaves roughly the same number – about 200,000 – still without schooling.
He says that if more refugee children enroll in schools, this may stem the flow of migrants from the region to Europe.
Advertisement
Gabriel told German TV on Sunday that the situation in host countries is “dramatically bad”.
