The election winner in Slovakia, Robert Fico, has said that the country should reinstate border checks with Hungary.
According to Fico, such a measure is necessary in order to prevent irregular migrants from entering Slovakia and moving further into the bloc.
As TVP World explains, Fico and his SMER-SSD group have been handed a mandate to start negotiations to form a coalition government after winning almost 23 per cent of the vote in weekend elections.
Nonetheless, to be able to build a coalition, Fico must convince another rival party to govern with him and a small nationalist party.
Before the elections took place, TVP World noted that Fico campaigned strongly against irregular migration.
He criticized the government for not doing more about the current situation and for not introducing stricter rules aimed at preventing irregular migration to the country.
In addition to the above-mentioned, Fico said that controls were needed along the entire border with Hungary, and the same emphasised that one of the first decisions of the government must be the reinstatement of border controls.
One of the first decisions of the government must be an order renewing border controls with Hungary.
As the Slovak authorities have revealed, most of the irregular migrants arrive in Slovakia after reaching Hungary through the Balkan route.
The Slovak authorities have been reporting a high number of irregular entries despite the Hungarian authorities saying that they have imposed additional restrictions in an attempt to put an end to all forms of irregular movement.
As part of its measures, Hungary built a steel fence in 2015, and since then, the country has prevented a large number of people from entering its territory irregularly.
Previously, Hungary said that the country’s authorities had prevented nearly one million migrants from crossing the southern border since 2015.
Congratulating the relevant authorities, the prime minister’s chief security advisor, György Bakondi, further revealed that the Hungarian authorities prevented around 27,600 individuals from entering the country’s territory in the first quarter of the year.
The same disclosed that in the second quarter of 2023, the authorities prevented 36,490 migrants from crossing the border irregularly and in the third quarter, the authorities prevented 43,300 irregular entries.
Data provided by the Hungarian authorities show that the main countries of origin of people who have irregularly crossed the border so far are Syria, Afghanistan, Türkiye, and Pakistan.
Since the majority of irregular migrants have been reaching Slovakia through Hungary, it means that those entering the territory of Slovakia irregularly are also mainly from the countries of origin mentioned above.
