Hungary starts construction of second border fence

BUDAPEST (Reuters) — Hungary has begun building a second line of fence along its southern border with Serbia, a government spokesman said yesterday, a move likely to exacerbate criticism from some of the country’s European Union (EU) partners.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s right-wing government considers migration to be one of the largest threats to the status quo in the EU. But officials in Brussels and some other EU centers are distressed by some of his goit-alone policies.

A European Parliament committee, for example, was due yesterday to discuss the state of fundamental rights in Hungary. Orban was also a rare EU leader to endorse US President Donald Trump, who is seeking to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.

A barbed-wire fence is already in place, erected in 2015, when Hungary was part of the main overland route for hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees, many fleeing the war in Syria.

It effectively blocked that route to Germany, where many were heading, but Hungary has said a second fence would make the barrier more effective and hold back migrants while processing their asylum requests.