Hungary May Use Army To Stop Flood Of Migrants

The Hungarian government has considered using its army to secure its southern border against migrants from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia pouring into the country via Serbia, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

Reuters reported that Zoltan Kovacs said that any decision to send troops to the frontier would have to be approved by Budapest's parliament, which would discuss the issue next week. On Tuesday, Kovacs said that the migrant flow needs to be better controlled. Hungary is preparing laws to make it a crime to cut through the fence or to enter Hungary illegally and is increasing the penalties for human traffickers.

"It is in the interest of all of us, Hungarians and Europeans, to develop some kind of order," Kovacs told the Associated Press, warning that otherwise many European cities could face unsustainable situations.

Hungary is attempting to build a 13-foot-high fence to keep out the migrants, many of whom are from Syria. However, the Associated Press reported that record numbers are crossing the border in what is being called E.U.rope's worst refugee crisis since the end of World War II.

Police said that 2,533 migrants were detained on Tuesday, up from 2,093 on Monday and by far the highest figure of the year. About 140,000 migrants have reached Hungary already this year, over three times as many as in all of 2014. Over the past week, the average was nearly 1,500 people a day.

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