Hungary Extends Border Control With Serbia, Croatia Five Miles Inland

Hungary tightened border control on borders with Serbia and Croatia overnight, extending border patrols 5 miles inland, a senior security official said.

VIENNA, July 5 (Sputnik) — The measure was taken to curb undocumented immigration, after Hungarian police stopped 17,000 people from crossing into the country illegally since the start of this year.

The Hungarian prime minister's chief security adviser, Gyorgy Bakondi, was quoted by the government website as saying that "depth border guarding" started at midnight on Tuesday.

Bakondi announced the measure in an interview to Hungarian television channel M1 the night before. He said that migrants detained within the 5-mile zone would be taken to the nearest "transit zone" beyond the border fence.

Hungarian border guards have apprehended a total of 160 human traffickers this year, according to Bakondi. He stressed these were presumed to be middlemen, while ring leaders stay in the background.