Human Smugglers Pelt Police With Stones and Marbles at the Border

Police officers working at the southern border fence are being pelted with stones, mud, and marbles. According to statistics, 485 attacks have been committed against uniformed officers in one year; 12 people have been injured, and 210 vehicles have been smashed, reported Kékfény (Blue Lights) crime show, on Monday evening’s program on Duna TV channel.

The Kékfény crew spent three weeks filming near the border fence in Csongrád-Csanád and Bács-Kiskun counties to show how police and border hunters working at the fence and in deep surveillance are struggling to intercept illegal migrants while being constantly attacked by human smugglers.

Uniformed officers are under constant threat and the pressure is immense, with up to 7-800 migrants trying to cross the fence illegally overnight, and the number is growing.

The number of first-time asylum seekers in the European Union increased in March compared to a year ago and to the previous month according to Eurostat.

In their March-report, they stated that

85,975 asylum seekers of non-EU nationality applied for international protection in EU countries in the month under review. This is 16 percent higher than in March 2022 (74.310), and around 10,000 higher than in February 2023 (76.505).

6,945 people reapplied for asylum after having been refused in March of this year, four percent more than in March 2022 (6,690).

In their hunt for illegal trespassers, the police rely not only on thermal imaging, they also keep a constant watch on trails and tracks, and regularly check abandoned, run-down farmhouses used by migrants to hide and rest for a few hours.

The crew members reported that they were briefed in the former transit zone near Röszke, where detained migrants were held years ago, and that police officers and border guards now rest in these containers between two services. They were also given bulletproof vests and helmets as they were repeatedly pelted, shot with slingshots, and have also heard machine-gun fire.

Several times during the making of the program they tried to talk to the migrants, but they said no one wanted to answer.

The apprehended trespassers are being taken by trucks to the border, where they will be deported back to Serbia.

Dozens of “battered” police cars are parked in the car park of the former transit zone in Röszke. There is not a single part of their bodywork that has not been damaged. There are also trees and stones stuck all over the fences, the remains of previous attacks. Every night the smugglers cut the wires in several places, and the next day the maintenance workers repair them in vain, as at night they damage them in new places. In fact, the barbed wires are regularly torn up and stretched between the two fences to prevent police cars from moving,” the program reported.

It was also reported that the number of illegal migrants in Hungary increased by 120 percent last year, with more than 269,000 crossing the country’s borders. The situation is the worst at the border in Csongrád. The flood of people is continuous on land, through the fence, but also on the Tisza river, according to the report by Kékfény.

Featured image: Facebook/Határőrség