Végh said that among the illegal migrants arriving in Europe through the western Balkan route, there were both genuine refugees coming from war zones and migrants who had set off for Europe for economic reasons, although some in the latter category also originated from the same crisisridden countries.

In the first half of the year, illegal entrants tended to submit asylum requests, whereas in the second half of the year most migrants did not, and in many cases refused to cooperate with the authorities altogether.

Végh said that most illegal entrants had come from the Middle East, central and south Asia, northern and central Africa and the western Balkans.

Most asylum seekers claimed to be Syrian, with Afghan, Kosovar, Pakistani and Iraqi nationals rounding out 90%.

BÁH registered 8,000 unaccompanied migrant children last year, most of whom chose not to accept the help of Hungary’s child protection services and left the country almost immediately.

Végh said 152,000 of the 177,000 asylum applications submitted to BAH had to be terminated because the asylum seekers had left the country before their applications were processed.

International protection was granted in 15% of the cases of completed asylum procedures, mainly to Syrian, Afghan and Somali nationals, she said.

The immigration office is spending some 5.5 billion forints (EUR 17.4m) on the accommodation, feeding and medical treatment of refugees. Végh said the government’s tightening of migration laws reduced both the migrant inflow and the number of asylum applications being submitted to BÁH.

Interior ministry state secretary Károly Kontrát said the government’s bold migration policy was successful in protecting both Hungary and the EU’s external borders.

He said while BÁH started out with a budget of 9.7 billion forints at the beginning of 2015, the government later allocated an additional 10 billion forints to the immigration office.

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