Hungary threatens to shut Serbian border to stop migrants

EU member Hungary threatened Friday to close its border with Serbia to stop an influx of migrants.

"We don't think it's right that they send us the refugees, they need to be stopped on Serbian territory," Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in an interview on Kossuth public radio.

"We take every option into consideration, including the possibility of complete physical closure of borders," Orban, 52, said, adding that a decision could be made next Wednesday.

The cabinets of both countries will hold a summit early July to tackle the issue.

The borders of the passport-free Schengen zone "do not need to be touched at this point... it's time to reinforce the external borders," he added.

Serbia is not yet a member of the EU, though it has started membership talks, while Hungary is part of the Schengen zone.

Last year, Hungary received more refugees per capita than any other EU country apart from Sweden, shooting up to almost 43,000 people from just 2,000 in 2012.

So far this year, some 54,000 migrants have entered Hungary, and the total this year is expected to be up to 130,000, Orban's chief of staff Janos Lazar said Thursday.

Earlier this year there was a spike in the number of people from Kosovo entering, but the vast majority now are from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to official data, 95 percent of them cross into Hungary from Serbia.

Austria, which borders Hungary and has also seen a sharp rise in the number of migrants, said this week that it is sending 40 police to help reinforce the Hungary-Serbia border.

Orban's comments came amid a anti-immigration campaign involving billboards with slogans such as, "If you come to Hungary, you cannot take Hungarians' jobs."

- Xenophobia -

Some of the ads have been vandalised, and several spoof billboards popped up over the last few days featuring the official design.
Local media reported that one in Szombathely, southwest of the capital Budapest said: "If you come to Hungary, could you please bring a sane prime minister?"

A satirical party, The Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog, says it has collected 25 million forints (80.000 euros, $89,800) in donations in three days with the promise of putting up more spoof billboards.

The government has also sent out a questionnaire on immigration to eight million voters that has been sharply criticised by the UN's refugee agency UNHCR amongst others.

At the same time a poll in April said that xenophobia has reached a 14-year high while the anti-immigration Jobbik party has seen its poll ratings rise in some surveys.