The crisis in Ukraine and illegal migration posed serious challenges to Hungary’s police throughout the year, which however managed to give an appropriate response to them by regrouping its forces, Papp said, noting a massive migration surge at the Hungarian-Serbian border section which called for strengthening local forces in two border counties.

He said that most illegal immigrants detained at Hungary’s borders were Kosovar, Syrian and Afghan citizens.

The number of Kosovar families travelling with minors and seeking to illegally cross to Hungary increased considerably, he said, noting that the number of minors alone was just under 8,000.

Quoting domestic statistics, Papp said that police took action in nearly 310,000 instances which is a 14% drop compared with 2013.

The number of crimes committed in public area dropped significantly, by 30%, he said.

The five-year average of crimes immediately affecting Hungarian citizens, such as homicide, robbery, attacks leading to bodily harm and car theft dropped compared with the previous five-year average while the number of burglaries and crimes related to rowdy behaviour increased, Papp said.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu

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