Fifty Czech police officers arrived in Budapest on Friday to help protect the European Union’s Schengen borders in southern Hungary.
Zoltán János Kuczik, the deputy of the national police chief, noted the increasing migration pressure as a “serious security threat for Europe” in his address at the reception ceremony. Protecting the southern borders serves security in the whole of Europe, he said, adding that international cooperation was crucial for efforts against illegal migration. Kuczik noted that the number of attempts at illegal entry had been 17,000 in 2019, 46,000 last year, and 90,000 in the first nine months of 2021. He also added that 915 legal proceedings had been launched against human smugglers this year, nearly three times as many as in the same period of 2020. He said that Austrian and Serbian police were also working together with Hungary’s border police, while Hungarian police officers were serving in North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia, as well as 157 officers in Frontex operations.
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