Hungary to recruit thousands of armed border guards

TMP – 25/03/2017

A new group of border guards graduated this week in Hungary as part of an ongoing campaign to guard the country’s southern borders. Hungarian police aim to recruit up to 3,000 of the police-style armed guards.

At a swearing-in ceremony of the border guards in Budapest on Tuesday (8 March), Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said the country had to act to defend itself against migrant flows.

“The storm has not died, it has only subsided temporarily,” he said. “There are still millions waiting to set out on their journey.”

The migrant flow to the country has decreased greatly since it erected a fence along its southern borders and after the implementation of the EU-Turkey deal which saw migrants reaching Greek shores returned to Turkey. However, the government speculates there will be a surge in migrants in the coming months.

The “border hunters” are given training similar to police. They will carry pistols with live ammunition, batons, pepper spray and handcuffs, and will also be equipped with night-vision goggles if needed. They also learn other skills such as guarding a border fence, detaining migrants and tracking migrants’ paths.

“The defence of Hungary is the most important for us,” said Adrienn Heronyanyi, a recent recruit who previously worked in catering.

In addition to the razor-wire border barrier, the government has begun installing a second fence along the Serbian border. Hungarian border police report that over 100 illegal migrants have been detained in the past 30 days.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said its teams in Serbia were treating a growing number of migrants who reported being beaten and stomped on by Hungarian border guards who intercepted them.

The Hungarian government denies the accusations. The prime minister’s office said eight cases of alleged mistreatment have been investigated but in none “was it proven that refugees had been harmed by border personnel”.