Refugees Keep On Coming To Hungary
- 7 Sep 2015 11:00 AM
Authorities continue to register 1,500-2,000 asylum seekers every day, Árpád Szép, the head of refugee affairs at the Immigration and Citizenship Office said yesterday. As of noon Sunday, there were about 3,000 people staying at collection centres. The number of illegal border entrants so far this year is 165,928, National Police border police official László Balázs told a press briefing in Budapest on Sunday.
Police say they have arrested 926 people-smugglers since January.
The Immigration Office told Népszabadság that nearly 145,000 applications for asylum were registered from January to late August.
Some 50,000 Syrians, 40,000 Afghans, 13,500 Pakistanis and 7,000 Iraqis have applied for refugee status. Citizens of these four states account for 80% of all applicants, while nearly one third of the Syrians have arrived in the last two weeks alone.
Barely more than 300 people have been granted refugee status. As of late August the Immigration Office had reached decisions on 67,000 cases, but mostly negative decisions were reached in just over 2,000 cases.
The other procedures were terminated as the applicants had disappeared. Another 95,000 applications await assessment, but the Office believes that the majority of those involved have already left Hungary.
Source: Hungary Around the Clock
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MTI photo: Molnár Edvárd
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