The number of illegal migrants has dropped significantly since the fence on the Hungarian-Serbian border was built, although a large number of migrants still attempt to cross illegally.Continue reading
Hungarian police officers guarantee the safety of the Hungarian people and take professional action against illegal immigration at the same time, the Parliamentary Secretary of State of the Ministry of Interior said on Thursday. Bence Rétvári attended an awards ceremony for those police officers who helped apprehend human smugglers who opened fire on them near the capital in November.
Bence Rétvári said that for the past seven years, everyone can see how the southern border has been under siege and how illegal immigrants have been trying to enter the country much more intensively in the last two years. He recalled that the number of cases of illegal immigration had already doubled in 2021 compared to 2020, and the November figures show that the number of cases also doubled in 2022 compared to the previous year.
We hear every day that guns are cracking on the Serbian side of the southern border, but there has never been an example of human smugglers shooting at police officers in Hungary before,
Rétvári pointed out, adding that until now, critical situations like the one recorded by the police camera in this case could only be seen in films.
At the ceremony, the Secretary of State stressed that the fact that Hungarian people live in safety is the result of the work of Hungarian police officers.
The politician also said that the smugglers had been instructed to use weapons against the police if necessary. He pointed out that civilians were also on the roads where the van full of migrants was being pursued, and that the incident could have led to many tragedies, but all of them were avoided because the police made the right decisions and there were no victims.
He described the police officers’ work as impeccable and exemplary, saying that they acted calmly. At the ceremony, 18 police officers were awarded.
In November on a Monday morning in Budapest, human smugglers driving a truck full of illegal migrants fired on police that were trailing them. For kilometers, police officers chased a Ford Transit truck on the M5 motorway towards Budapest that refused to stop. Despite shots fired from the vehicle towards the police car, police officers continued to follow the truck, which was finally forced to a halt on the outskirts of Budapest.
Featured photo via MTI/Kovács Attila; MTI/Belügyminisztérium