Emergency declared over migrant influx + video

A state of emergency has been declared in a district of southern Slovakia due to the massive flow of illegal migrants. Slovak politicians have so far kept their heads in the sand, although for two years now, Slovak authorities have been making efforts to curb the influx of migrant with the help of joint Hungarian-Slovak border patrolling.

202200727 magyar szerb hatar migransok havran zoltan magyar nemzet Fotó: Havran Zoltán

Hungary is not only open to cooperation, but this has been a daily practice at police level for years.

Slovakia has also been struggling with illegal migration since 2015, and for more than two years now, joint Hungarian-Slovak patrols have been trying to tackle a worsening situation. Police cooperation between the two countries is at a high level, regulating for example the issue of cross-border tracking of migrants. This allows both Slovak and Hungarian police to track and apprehend criminals, including people smugglers, on either side of the border. There are plenty of examples of this.

As reported by the Slovak ma7  news portal, a joint Hungarian-Slovak patrolling unit noticed and followed a people-smuggling vehicle crossing the border and reaching as far as Bratislava (Pozsony), where they eventually managed to capture the smugglers, who were trying to flee on foot.  The vehicle was carrying 25 migrants, who were registered and allowed to stay in Slovakia. Criminal proceedings have been launched against the human smugglers.

However, there is a loophole in the regulations. Under the Slovak law, only a smuggler who crosses the state border can be prosecuted; if migrants are dropped off at the border and arrive in Slovakia crossing the border on their own, the smuggler cannot be prosecuted. Experience shows that criminals have adopted this practice.

The Western Balkan route has definitely changed. In the past, people smugglers led migrants mainly to Austria, taking them across or around Hungary's border fence, but thanks to the increasingly successful joint action by Hungarian and Austrian law enforcement, this route has become much more difficult for organized criminals.

It is due to this and not to political decisions, that the smugglers picked Slovakia as a destination, according to the police. Human smugglers bring illegal migrants to Hungary across the Serbia-Romania border and not across the border fence, and then they proceed towards north, to Slovakia.

Cover photo: Illegal migrants on their way to cross the Serbia-Hungary border (Photo: Zoltan Havran)