PRAGUE (Sputnik) — A barbed-wire fence currently separates Hungary, a member of EU borderless Schengen area, from Serbia. Budapest said earlier it would extend the barrier to borders with Croatia and Romania, to manage the rising tide of undocumented immigrants traveling through the western Balkan states from war-torn Middle Eastern countries.
"We have been asked by our Hungarian partners to send police officers, vehicles and military personnel to defend the Schengen border in Hungary," Chovanec told reporters.
A combined forces of over 100 police and military officers, as well as vehicles, will be dispatched to Hungary within the next two weeks, the minister added.
The four nations – all participants of the border-free Schengen Area agreement – will discuss ways to help Budapest ease the migrant crisis at an October 8 meeting of their interior ministers.
Earlier on Friday, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka pledged, in a Twitter post, to help Hungary.
Hungary is among EU member states that have recently reinstated border controls and deployed military reinforcements to manage the flow of refugees in its territory.
