The construction of a 10 km long section of underground barrier around Hungary’s border with Serbia has quietly been completed, liberal news site hvg.hu reports. The cost of the additional barrier, which is to stop illegal entries to Hungary through underground tunnels, is HUF 38 million (EUR 104,491).
The Interior Ministry did not specify the exact location of the fence, which would cost a total of HUF 650 million if built for the whole Croatian-Serbian border section, hvg.hu writes.
The new underground solution was created to stop illegal entry attempts from dug tunnels below the border fence.
According to official data, the number of people attempting to cross Hungary’s border illegally has been increasing since last autumn, and police claim human traffickers are trying to smuggle illegal migrants through the underground tunnels.
The first tunnel was discovered at the end of last year. Many more have been found since then, at times several in a single day. Consequently, in August, it was announced in Röszke that due to the growing number of tunnels, the border barrier would be reinforced with an underground section.
Police reported the discovery of the latest opening on October 5th. Over the past month, tunnels have also been found near Szeged, Ásotthalom, and Kelebia, hvg.hu noted.
So far, the Orbán government has spent HUF 12.6 billion on the border barrier at Hungary’s southern borders. It is equipped with thermal cameras, sensors, and is constantly patrolled by police officers and soldiers.
Featured photo illustration by Gergely Kelemen Zoltán/MTI
