Hungarian parliament has passed a law authorizing the use of non-lethal force to help handle the refugee crisis in the country.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban in a speech before the vote called for the EU states to prepare for an inflow of millions of refugees and stated that Hungary is “able to protect it’s own borders if Europe doesn’t want to protect its borders.”
According to the new law, Hungarian army would be allowed to use rubber bullets, pyrotechnical devices, tear gas grenades or net guns.
Hungary, a Schengen border country, is being used as a gateway to wealthier EU countries by hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, fleeing to Europe to escape violence and poverty in their home countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
On Tuesday, Hungary closed its border with Serbia and introduced criminal penalties for border infringements in a bid to stop the inflow of undocumented migrants. Hungary also reinforced its recently constructed fence on its border with Serbia with barbed wire.
