Szép said 95% of the asylum procedures launched this year had to be cancelled because the immigration office was unable to determine whether the applicant was eligible for refugee status.

The office rejected fewer than 2,000 applications in the cases of completed asylum procedures, Szép added.

He noted that 155 asylum applications were registered on Thursday, bringing the total number of applications filed this year to 174,660. One fifth to one quarter of asylum seekers are children.

The national police said on its website that so far more than 250,000 migrants have entered Hungary illegally this year. Criminal proceedings have been launched against 196 people for illegal border crossing, police said.

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