HUNGARY will register all migrants that come to the country and send economic migrants back to the state from which they entered, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

He also said Hungary did not support the quota system for migrant distribution, saying it encourages smugglers.

"We plan to register all migrants regardless of the fact that we are not the first member state they enter. We will register everyone who submits the request for asylum and carry out the procedure," Szijjarto said on the sidelines of a business conference in Bled in Slovenia.

"If the decision is positive the refugee can stay, but if it is not positive we cannot give shelter to the economic migrants, we cannot bear that burden, so they will be returned where they come from."

Meanwhile two ferries chartered by Greece were yesterday evening carrying more than 4,000 migrants from its overwhelmed eastern Aegean islands to the mainland.

The government began the ferry runs from islands such as Lesbos and Kos in mid-August due to a scarcity of tickets on regular ferries at the height of the summer tourist season.

Thousands of migrants have been stuck on the Greek islands, with families sleeping out in the open for days in streets and parks until they can get a ferry ticket.

In addition, Greece's coast guard said that it rescued nearly 1,200 migrants from the sea off the islands in the past 24 hours.

Irish Independent