PRAGUE (Sputnik) — Hungary will launch publicity campaigns in several countries in Southern Europe to discourage asylum seekers from entering Hungary and the European Union, the head of the Hungarian prime minister’s office said Thursday.
In recent months, Europe has been facing a massive migration crisis, as thousands of people are fleeing poverty and conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa. Hungary often serves as a transit country for migrants arriving to Europe.
"Via such campaigns, we want to inform the undocumented immigrants that giving money to the traffickers to get them to Hungary will be in vain," Janos Lazar said at a news conference broadcast by the Hungarian Hir TV.
Lazar also expressed regret that Hungary had received very little funding from the European Union to address the crisis.
More than 100,000 undocumented migrants have entered Hungary through its southern border since the beginning of 2015, according to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry.
In July, the Hungarian government approved the construction of a 13-foot fence along its 110-mile southern border with Serbia to stop the inflow of undocumented migrants. The move was condemned by Brussels, which pursues the policy of resettling migrants from southern EU countries across the bloc.
