More than 80,000 entries have been registered by authorities since September, Mikl-Leitner said. Some 439 smugglers have been identified during 16 joint Austrian-Hungarian operations. Ten other countries are taking part in the programme including Germany, Switzerland, Serbia, Romania and Croatia.

Hungary realised an unprecedented rise in illegal border entrants last autumn, National Police law enforcement director Zsolt Halmosi said. This year 14,000 violators were captured, of which 6,000 were along the Hungarian-Serb border.

Source: Hungary Around the Clock

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