BUDAPEST, Hungary— Thousands of migrants have continued to travel through Hungary on their way toward western Europe, despite fences, border closures and the European Union’s deal with Turkey to stop sea crossings to Greece.
Hungarian authorities have briefly detained nearly 11,000 people this year for breaching the razor-wire barriers on its borders with Serbia and Croatia and most of them have later continued their journeys to Austria, Germany and other favored destinations in the EU, the government and aid groups say.
Instead of crossing the sea from Turkey to Greece, some of the new arrivals have come by the dangerous route from Turkey through Bulgaria and then to Serbia, where about 100 people have been arriving daily.
While the overall numbers of those reaching Hungary are now a fraction of those flooding into the country at the height of the migrant crisis last year, the continued flow has forced Austria to re-introduce controls on its border with Hungary.
“Putting up a fence in the way of a refugee population is not going to be the answer, it has not solved the problem itself,” said Babar Baloch, Central Europe spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR. “Whatever the approach the Hungarian government is taking, it is not helping itself, the refugees or the EU.”
