The people living in Börzsöny could also experience firsthand that the number of illegal migrants in the area increased significantly during the summer. While it was not at all typical in the settlements of the Váci and Szobi districts for the people living here to meet refugees in groups, in June and July already over a hundred per month, while in August already an exceptionally high number of thousands tried to cross the border illegally by circumventing the rules.
Regarding whether Börzsöny has really become a migration route, Imre Horváth, head of the Váci Police Department, responded to our newspaper’s inquiry by saying that the migration situation in the area really started to increase this summer. “In the months of June and July, we experienced hundreds of thousands of migratory pressures on the Slovakian-Hungarian border, which escalated in August. During this month, the number of illegal border crossings increased to more than a thousand,” the captain emphasized, adding that they have to manage a 59-kilometer section in relation to the migration situation.
In order to deal with the situation, the Váci Police Department, together with the Pest County Police Department and the Emergency Police, moved joint police units to the border. “As a result of this, I can announce that this month the number of apprehended migrants has dropped to less than 100 in ten days. We have done everything and will continue to do everything to keep this result. I think that we will be able to maintain this situation in the coming months, and thus we will return to spring conditions,” emphasized Imre Horváth.
Bence Rétvári, the representative of the regional parliament, pointed out that both illegal migration and human trafficking, which provide significant income for the underworld, have become extremely aggressive.
“We heard news about how many illegal migrants are trying to get to Europe from the south, from the Western Balkans, but the arrival of illegal migrants has become so aggressive, human traffickers are so aggressive that they have actually appeared in areas of the country where they were not before. Therefore, the two governments immediately took action and we set up joint patrols in the western part of the Hungarian-Slovak border section, precisely in order to catch as many illegal migrants as possible, said Bence Rétvári.
Tímea Gerzsenyi-Raczkó
