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| Hungary Detains Migrants in Border Crackdown | Hungary Detains Migrants in Border Crackdown |
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| LONDON — Tough laws aimed at keeping out migrants came into effect in Hungary early Tuesday, a harsh new element in the European Union’s struggle with the influx of migrants as the bloc’s cherished principle of open borders continued to fray. | |
| As of midnight, migrants who tried to breach the 109-mile fence made out of razor wire that is being constructed along Hungary’s border with Serbia faced the threat of arrest and criminal charges. Those who damage the recently built fence can also be punished with imprisonment or deportation. | As of midnight, migrants who tried to breach the 109-mile fence made out of razor wire that is being constructed along Hungary’s border with Serbia faced the threat of arrest and criminal charges. Those who damage the recently built fence can also be punished with imprisonment or deportation. |
| Nevertheless, the police said they had caught migrants trying to breach the border fence at three locations on the Serbian border, even after midnight, when the new rules came into effect. They said that a record 9,380 migrants were detained on Monday on suspicion of illegally crossing the border. | Nevertheless, the police said they had caught migrants trying to breach the border fence at three locations on the Serbian border, even after midnight, when the new rules came into effect. They said that a record 9,380 migrants were detained on Monday on suspicion of illegally crossing the border. |
| On Tuesday morning, state television showed a hole in the border fence, apparently cut by a group of migrants. The police detained 16 people, who now face prison terms and expulsion under the new rules. | On Tuesday morning, state television showed a hole in the border fence, apparently cut by a group of migrants. The police detained 16 people, who now face prison terms and expulsion under the new rules. |
| Hungarian police said Monday evening that border officers would be posted 35 meters (about 115 feet) apart along the entire border and would arrest anyone trying to cross illegally. Scores of judges have been deployed to expedite legal proceedings against migrants who break the law. | |
| In what appeared to be a move to shepherd migrants out of the country, the Hungarian authorities continued overnight to charter trains, carrying about 1,000 migrants at a time, from the border with Serbia to the border with Austria. Migrants were then allowed to cross into Austria, the local news media reported. | In what appeared to be a move to shepherd migrants out of the country, the Hungarian authorities continued overnight to charter trains, carrying about 1,000 migrants at a time, from the border with Serbia to the border with Austria. Migrants were then allowed to cross into Austria, the local news media reported. |
| The new Hungarian restrictions began to have a ripple effect on other countries. | |
| Austrian authorities said they were preparing for the likelihood that migrants would seek to bypass Hungary and enter Austria via Croatia or Slovenia instead. The Austrian army was set to deploy 2,200 soldiers to patrol the borders, primarily in the eastern state of Burgenland, which borders Hungary and shares short borders with Slovenia and Slovakia. | |
| In Hungary, Zoltan Kovacs, a spokesman for Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said the new steps to stop illegal border crossings were a response to an “industrial scale” problem. | |
| “Everybody eligible for asylum will be considered,” he said. “But a migrant should not be able to choose freely the country in which they claim asylum. Illegal border crossing has happened on an industrial scale here in Hungary. They’ve arrived in Hungary from 100 different countries, proving that this is a migration crisis and not a refugee crisis.” | “Everybody eligible for asylum will be considered,” he said. “But a migrant should not be able to choose freely the country in which they claim asylum. Illegal border crossing has happened on an industrial scale here in Hungary. They’ve arrived in Hungary from 100 different countries, proving that this is a migration crisis and not a refugee crisis.” |
| He added: “As of today, illegal border crossing will be a crime, and a crime is a crime.” | He added: “As of today, illegal border crossing will be a crime, and a crime is a crime.” |
| The moves by Hungary, which has found itself to be an unwilling center of Europe’s migration crisis, are the latest blow to two decades of borderless travel in parts of the European Union, which now has 28 members. On Monday, Austria, Slovakia and the Netherlands followed Germany’s example over the weekend and introduced checks at their borders, effectively suspending Europe’s border-free Schengen Zone. | The moves by Hungary, which has found itself to be an unwilling center of Europe’s migration crisis, are the latest blow to two decades of borderless travel in parts of the European Union, which now has 28 members. On Monday, Austria, Slovakia and the Netherlands followed Germany’s example over the weekend and introduced checks at their borders, effectively suspending Europe’s border-free Schengen Zone. |
| On Monday in Brussels, the European Union failed to agree on a modest plan that would have required countries to distribute 120,000 more migrants across the bloc. | On Monday in Brussels, the European Union failed to agree on a modest plan that would have required countries to distribute 120,000 more migrants across the bloc. |
| The meeting of the bloc’s internal affairs ministers ended without even a semblance of consensus, as countries from Eastern and Central Europe, including Hungary, opposed rules dictating migration policy, which they argue undermine their national sovereignty. | The meeting of the bloc’s internal affairs ministers ended without even a semblance of consensus, as countries from Eastern and Central Europe, including Hungary, opposed rules dictating migration policy, which they argue undermine their national sovereignty. |
| The issue has created an East-West divide, with former Communist countries reticent of accepting a model that many there see as imposing multiculturalism on a region that sees itself as ill equipped to accept and integrate large numbers of migrants. | The issue has created an East-West divide, with former Communist countries reticent of accepting a model that many there see as imposing multiculturalism on a region that sees itself as ill equipped to accept and integrate large numbers of migrants. |
| Mr. Kovacs said that the European Union needed to work to stop migrants from illegally entering the bloc in Greece, which has often been the entry point for people fleeing countries like Afghanistan, Eritrea and Syria. Hungary is eager for illegal migrants to be fended off before they can begin a trail via the western Balkans that eventually passes through Hungary and on to Austria, Germany or other destinations. | Mr. Kovacs said that the European Union needed to work to stop migrants from illegally entering the bloc in Greece, which has often been the entry point for people fleeing countries like Afghanistan, Eritrea and Syria. Hungary is eager for illegal migrants to be fended off before they can begin a trail via the western Balkans that eventually passes through Hungary and on to Austria, Germany or other destinations. |
| In Hungary, the police spent much of Monday trying to plug gaps in the border fence and at other entry points in Roszke, a town on the Serbian border that migrants have been flooding in recent weeks. | In Hungary, the police spent much of Monday trying to plug gaps in the border fence and at other entry points in Roszke, a town on the Serbian border that migrants have been flooding in recent weeks. |
| Hungary has indicated that it will take migrants to two border crossing points, at Roszke and Tompa, and determine if they are valid refugees and should be admitted to Hungary. But it remained unclear whether they would register the new migrants, simply reject them at the border or turn them back to Serbia. | |
| The Hungarian position is that since the migrants have come through so-called “safe countries” such as Serbia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey, they are not actually refugees fleeing imminent danger, but rather economic migrants who have no legal right to enter the country. | |
| Tanjug, the Serbian state news agency, said that the numbers of migrants has been building on the Serbian side of the border Tuesday morning since Hungary instituted its new crackdown. The border crossing at Horogs, through which migrants were being allowed to pass as late as midnight, was closed by Hungarian police shortly after midnight. | |
| The Serbian labor minister Aleksandar Vulin said in an interview Tuesday with the state-controlled news agency that Serbia will refuse to accept back any refugees who cross into Hungary and are registered there. “We will not keep anybody in our territory by force and, by the same token, won’t accept any country forcibly, without proper legal procedures and readmission, returning anyone to our territory,” Mr. Vulin told the Tanjug news agency. “They are in Hungary’s territory and we expect that the Hungarian state will treat them as it should.” | |
| Vojackova Sollarno, the United Nations representative in Serbia, told Tanjug that the refugee situation along the border was changing hour to hour and reiterated the international body’s position that refugees who cross into Hungary should be granted all the protections refugees deserve and not simply turned back to Serbia. | |
| “More than 70 percent of the population escaping Syria are refugees, running away from a situation that is for them a matter of life and death, and it is us to us to do all that we can to help them,” she said. | |
| Elsewhere, as the Europe’s incoherent migration policy continued to impose new challenges for refugees, the United Nations’s refugee agencyon Tuesday expressed deep disappointment with the EU’s failure to agree on a proposal to distribute refugees across the bloc. |