György Bakondi told a press conference that the new law aims to ensure that no one enters the country illegally but guarantees migrants an opportunity to submit asylum requests.

Under the law, illegal entrants stopped within eight kilometres of the border will be escorted back over the border and offered an opportunity to apply for asylum at a transit zone.

Migrants who comply with authorities, and apply for asylum, will not be expelled from the country and their appeals will be processed without delay. Police chief Károly Papp said that 826 people attempted to cross Hungary’s border illegally between midnight and noon on Tuesday. A total of 675 of them were caught in the act of trying to cross the border illegally by border police.

A further 151 people who had managed to enter the country were apprehended and escorted back over the border. All of them were cooperative with authorities, Papp said.

Migration pressure on the southern border has been continuously growing since the beginning of the year, with authorities recording a daily average of 16 arrivals in January, 79 in February and 120 in June, he added.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Kelemen Zoltán Gergely