Hungary’s prime minister seeks fence to help reduce migrant flow

Hungarian border police arrive at the transit camp on the Macedonia-Greece border near Gevgelija, to help Macedonian authorities manage the flow of migrants on January 6, 2016. REUTERS / Ognen Teofilovski

By Marja Novak

BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia (Reuters) – Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that a fence should be erected on the Macedonian and Bulgarian borders with Greece to curb the inflow of migrants into Europe.

“If we cannot secure the outer border (of the EU), regardless of how costly or demanding that is, we will destroy the Schengen regime by ourselves,” Orban said, referring to Europe’s free-travel area.

He was speaking during a one-day visit to Slovenia.

Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar told the same news conference the European Union needed a joint solution within weeks to the migrant crisis to avoid possible conflicts between countries.

“We do not have time until spring to find a solution. We need a solution within weeks … if not, we can expect conflicts between countries,” Cerar said.

“The (migrant) situation is entirely out of control and has nothing to do with humanitarianism, integration and help,” Cerar added.

Over 411,000 migrants have entered Slovenia since Hungary fenced off its borders in October and pushed the migrant flow to the west through Slovenia. Almost all of them continued on their way to Austria and further north to Germany and other EU states.

Slovenia on Thursday followed Austria with an announcement that it will reject all migrants apart from the ones seeking asylum in Austria or Germany.

Over the past months Slovenia, too, has erected about 156 kilometers of fence on its southern border with Croatia to ensure that migrants can only enter the country through official border crossings.

Cerar said Slovenia would pull the fence down as soon as a joint EU solution to the migrant crisis is found.

Orban said Bulgaria, which lies north of Greece, should also join the Schengen area as it has shown that it is ready to secure its borders.

(Reporting By Marja Novak; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

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