Smaller groups of migrants, numbering up to sixty people, have started to resurface at Hungary’s sealed-off southern border with Serbia. The migrants are believed to have travelled to Hungary’s southern neighbour across Bulgaria, according to a local Hungarian-language television channel.

István Bacskulin, mayor of the ethnic Hungarian-populated Serbian border town of Horgos, told Pannon RTV on Friday that smaller groups of migrants appear in the town every two to three years. Sightings of groups numbering up to sixty individuals have been reported, the mayor said, explaining that the migrants are looking for gaps on the anti-immigration border barrier constructed by Hungary, as well as attempting to locate the Tisza river to cross into the European Union.

Last summer, thousands of migrants were travelling across the town but migratory pressure was alleviated by the closure of the Hungarian-Serbian border in September, with migrants from the Middle East now opting to travel through Croatia after arriving to Macedonia. Since mid-November, Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia have only been allowing migrants into their territory from war zones such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. This means that migrants unable to prove their country of origin are refused entry to the next country on the Balkans migration route. In a further attempt to curtain the unbridled influx of migrants, only those applying for asylum in Germany or Austria and possessing travel documents are allowed to travel further.