Hungary mobilises military reservists to tackle ‘mass migration situation’

Hungary has now called up military reservists to deal with the “mass migration situation”. On the Hungary-Austria border at Hegyeshalom, Sky’s Alex Crawford says the country is now on a “virtual war footing”. As well as building fences, it has helicopters scouring the countryside and soldiers in armoured Humvee vehicles. The move came as Hungary accused Croatia of committing “a major violation of international law” by trying to transport 1,000 migrants by train across its border. Budapest described the train’s unannounced arrival as a “major, major incident” - and alleged 40 police officers accompanying the migrants had to be disarmed and sent back.

What is more, we see intentional participation in human smuggling, taking these migrants to the Hungarian border.

Zoltan Kovacs

The migrants who were on the train are being transferred to a reception camp - and Hungary claims it has arrested the train driver. Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said it showed “the Croatian system for handling migrants and refugees has collapsed, basically in one day”. “What we see today is a complete failure of the Croatian state to handle migration issues,” he added. Croatia’s prime minister has hit back at Hungary in a growing row over migrants, saying his country has “forced” its neighbour to take back refugees. "We forced them, by sending people up there. And we’ll keep doing it,“ a defiant Zoran Milanovic told reporters.

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