Hungary may send troops to border with Serbia

Hungary is sending police reinforcements and may deploy troops to its frontier with Serbia, where tear gas was fired on Wednesday as record numbers of migrants defied efforts to tighten border security.

More than 2,100 police officers and cadets will form six fast-reaction units equipped with four-wheel-drives, helicopters, horses and dogs, said Hungary's chief police commissioner Karoly Papp, adding that the so-called "hunting" groups "do not have and will not get an order to shoot".

He spoke as officials announced that 2,533 migrants had been detained in Hungary on Tuesday, breaking the record of 2,093 set on Monday.

Hungary’s populist government wants razor wire along the entire 175km border with Serbia by next Monday, and a four-metre-high security fence to be completed later in the year. Critics call the move a costly publicity stunt by a government under pressure from far-right opposition, and note that no serious crimes involving migrants have been reported.

Hungary is legally obliged to examine all asylum requests and offer protection to people fleeing conflict, and it has no room in overcrowded state-run camps to accommodate the greater numbers of migrants who may be caught by a tighter border regime.

Tear gas

Migrants are already climbing over and under the coils of razor wire, and crossing from Serbia on roads and railway tracks where there are gaps in the fence.

In the Hungarian border town of Roszke on Wednesday, police fired tear gas at a migrant reception centre when a brief scuffle broke out, apparently when new arrivals attempted to leave without giving their fingerprints. Many migrants are reluctant to register as asylum seekers in Hungary, because they do not want to be sent back there from countries where they hope to settle, like Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said Hungary’s government and national security officials had discussed the possible deployment of the army to the border, and that parliament may vote on such a move next week.

Hungary complains that it has received little EU assistance to deal with some 140,000 migrants who have arrived in the country this year, as they travel from the Middle East, through Turkey and the Balkans towards western Europe. The vast majority stay in Hungary for only a few days, however. Last year, Hungary received about 43,000 requests for asylum and granted only 240.

Migration pressure

Migration pressure is building across Europe, and the issue is expected to dominate a summit in Vienna on Thursday between leaders of Balkan states and senior

European Commission

officials, with German chancellor

Angela Merkel

also in attendance. She was booed when she visited the eastern German town of Heidenau, where violence erupted over the weekend when far-right militants protested against the arrival of refugees.

According to the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, nearly 300,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to Greece and Italy this year; more than 2,370 people have drowned during such crossings, the International Organisation for Migration says. With people continuing to flow out of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Eritrea and other parts of Asia and Africa, the UNHCR expects up to 3,000 migrants to cross into Macedonia from Greece every day in the coming months.

Serbia says about 10,000 migrants are now on its territory at any one time. "The situation will get worse, when winter arrives," said Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vucic. "We're getting ready to look after double that number."