Vucic told Hungary will send soldiers to border with Serbia

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has spoken on the phone with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic about the refugee crisis.
Source: Beta, Tanjug Thursday, September 3, 2015 | 11:35

A file photo of Viktor Orban and Aleksandar Vucic (Tanjug)

Orban's press service said on Thursday that the two prime ministers "spoke about the crisis situation caused by mass migration on the borders of Serbia and Macedonia."
The migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia are transiting the Balkans and Hungary in bid to reach western Europe.

Orban, who is in Brussels today discussing the migrant crisis with EU leaders, "informed Vucic about a new law on border control that will be adopted by the Hungarian parliament and will enable the sending of strong police and military units to the border with Serbia starting September 15," the press service head Baratalan Havasi announced.

Orban also told Vucic that "it is expected that migrants and people smugglers will seek new transit paths and bypass Hungary," and added that "countries in the region must prepare for this situation."

Vucic told Orban that "Serbia is fulfilling its obligation to register asylum seekers arriving from Macedonia, although Macedonia is not carrying out controls at its borders."

Earlier in the day, reports said that a Hungarian parliament member announced his country would establish "transit zones for migrants, in the direction of Serbia."

Ruling Fidesz party member Gergely Gulyas, who heads the Hungarian parliament's legislative committee, said these "transit zone" on Hungary's southern border "will be open in the direction of Serbia, and closed hermetically in the direction of Hungary."

Gulyas described Serbia as "a safe third country," and added Hungary would grant migrants asylum "only if it is proved a similar procedure for asylum seekers in Serbia failed to fulfill international law criteria, or that of the rule of law."

Also on Thursday, the main train station in Budapest was reopened for migrants, but no trains were running to western European cities.

In an opinion piece he penned for a German newspaper, Viktor Orban observed that "the influx of refugees into Europe threatens to undermine its Christian roots."