OREANDA-NEWS. Interior Minister Sándor Pintér, Defence Minister István Simicskó, Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka and Austrian Defence and Sports Minister Hans Peter Doskozil had a meeting on Thursday in Röszke in order to discuss the options for joint action against illegal immigration.

At the press conference held after the meeting, Mr Pintér reiterated that Hungary has adopted new laws in the interest of protecting the external borders, the essence of which lies in the concept that migrants apprehended within a distance of eight kilometres from the border are accompanied back to the border and are directed to the transit zones where they are able to submit their asylum requests.

The talks focused on how Austria could provide assistance with the new organisational scheme of border protection, he added.

The politician said thanks to his Austrian colleagues for the help which they are providing in order to ensure that no one should enter Hungary via the green border uninvited, without permission and controls.

Mr Simicskó said that they are conducting consultations as to what specific military assistance Austria would be able to render with the protection of the Hungarian-Serbian border and how the Austrian defence forces could cooperate with the Hungarian defence and police forces in compliance with the EU asylum norms and procedural rules.

The Hungarian defence forces are open to receiving the duly prepared Austrian forces, and to helping their work with any kind of technical and reconnaissance activities as well, the politician stressed. The Hungarian military have acquired major experience in this field in recent months as forces had already come to Hungary from the Visegrád countries for similar purposes, he added.

Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka stressed that the protection of the EU’s borders is a joint affair of Austria and Hungary. This work is also assisted by Austria by making available twenty members of its police force to support the Hungarian efforts under the auspices of Frontex (the EU’s border management agency). A condition of the protection of the external borders is that the countries located further along the Western Balkans route should also control their borders, and to this end they, too, must be given support.

Austria welcomes the fact that the mandate of Frontex can also be extended to third countries. At the same time, the organisation of one thousand five hundred is unable to guarantee the protection of the external borders on its own, the Austrian Interior Minister said.

The establishment of registration centres, so-called hot spots as near the countries of origin as possible is an important task. Another central issue is as to how migrants can be sent back, he pointed out.