The rapid rise in the influx of illegal migrants will put an extra burden of more than 15 billion forints (EUR 47.8m) on Hungary, according to fresh estimates, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said. These estimates were made based on a daily 1,200 new entrants, but by now their numbers have risen to 1,800, he told journalists. The number of illegal entries so far this year stands at 140,000 and it is expected that illegal migration through the western Balkans will grow in the winter, he said. Arrivals in Hungary are estimated to rise to 400,000 by the end of the year, he added.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister accused the European Union of attempting to “sabotage” Hungary’s plans to hold a conference on migration in Budapest in October. The conference’s aim is to work out strategy to respond to migrationary pressure in the region, he noted. The “dramatic situation” in the western Balkans has a similar effect on Hungary, and “sabotaging” a conference on this subject would be “inexcusable”. Hungary has already started preparations for the conference and foreign and interior ministers will be invited to attend, Szijjártó said.

The Hungarian government regularly talks with foreign interior ministers and he himself is scheduled to meet his Macedonian counterpart next week on the subject of Macedonian efforts to curb the wave of migration, the minister said. Next Friday and Saturday EU foreign ministers will meet in Luxembourg, where migration is on the agenda, he said. The Serbian minister has also been invited to those talks, and he will have a one-on-one with him, too, he said. Szijjártó said he had briefed the German foreign minister about the “dramatic situation” on Hungary’s southern borders. The migrants are “more and more aggressive” and tend to evade compulsory registration, he said.

via hungarymatters.hu and MTI photo: Zsolt Szigetváry – MTI