Commenting on the two temporary reception centres the government plans to build in southern Hungary, Tuzson said there is no ideal place to build the centres but the current situation necessitates them. He added that consultations with local mayors were being held.

State secretary at the Interior Ministry Tibor Pogácsás said the two reception centres would be temporary and the open centres would hold up to 1,000 illegal migrants each until their asylum requests were processed. The government promised the mayors of the two villages - Martonfa and Sormás - to help ease the tension on local residents in connection with the reception centres.

Under a decree published in the Friday issue of the government’s official gazette Magyar Közlöny, two temporary reception centres for migrants are planned, near these two villages.

Unlike Hungary’s left-wing opposition parties, Fidesz wants to protect Hungarians, Tuzson said, accusing them of having failed to realise the need to take more effective measures in tackling the problem of illegal migration.

Asked to detail the costs of building the border fence, the spokesman said the extra 22.2 billion forints (EUR 72m) allocated towards handling migration last week will be spent on police equipment and child protection services, too.

The actual costs of building the fence will be about 3.65 billion forints (EUR 11.8m), he said.

On the subject of an easy evasion of the fence near the Hungarian- Serbian-Romanian triple border, Tuzson said “if illegal immigration presents problems in other areas, they will be solved there, too”.

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Migrans at II. János Pál Pápa tér in the 8th district in Budapest

MTI photo: Balogh Zoltán