Migrant crisis: Tough Hungarian laws take effect

Hungary has brought in tough new laws to stop the entry of illegal migrants.

Police can now detain anyone who tries to breach a razor-wire fence built on the border with Serbia.

The EU is facing a huge influx of migrants, many fleeing conflict and poverty in countries including Syria and trying to reach Western Europe.

A boat carrying migrants from Turkey to Greece sank on Tuesday, leaving 22 people including four children dead, Turkish media reported.

The EU has agreed to relocate 40,000 migrants from Greece and Italy to other EU states, starting on Tuesday. But it has yet to agree on mandatory quotas for a further 120,000 asylum seekers.

The new Hungarian laws came into effect at midnight (22:00 GMT Monday).

Police sealed a railway crossing point that had been used by tens of thousands of migrants, and many slept out in the open on the Serbian side of the border.

Police buses will now take asylum applicants to registration centres, but if their applications are refused they will now be returned to Serbia rather than being given passage through Hungary, the BBC's Nick Thorpe reports from the border.

Hungarian authorities said more than 9,000 - a new record - crossed into the country before the border was closed on Monday.

Police have been ordered to arrest those crossing the border illegally

Image captionHungary has also deployed mounted police along its border with Serbia

Anyone who crosses the border illegally will face criminal charges, and 30 judges have been put on standby to try potential offenders.

The laws also make it a criminal offence - punishable by prison or deportation - to damage the newly-built four-metre (13ft) fence along Hungary's 175km (110 mile) border with Serbia.

Mounted police have been deployed along the border.

As darkness fell on Monday night, a locomotive and a single wagon unloaded coils of razor wire on the barrier across the railway, and those migrants who were unable to cross set out on the 12km walk to Kiralyhalom, the next border crossing point.

The previous day, I drove the same section and counted 17 points at which the fence had been breached.

If the fence does prove too difficult to cross, many people may loop round to cross through Hungary's still almost unguarded borders with Romania (450km) or Croatia (350km).

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"We will start a new era," government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said shortly after midnight. "We will stop the inflow of illegal migrants over our green borders."

But he added: "That also means that the official and legal ways to come to Hungary and therefore to the European Union remain open. That's all we ask from all migrants - that they should comply with international and European law."

At the Brussels talks, Luxembourg, which holds the EU presidency, said it was hoped that the relocation proposal could be made law at a meeting on 8 October.

The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary were reportedly among the nations opposed to mandatory quotas.

"There was no consensus, several countries disagreed," Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak said after the talks.

Analysis:

After a difficult meeting marked by heated debate, there was no unanimous agreement on the proposal to relocate another 120,000 refugees across the EU - with mandatory quotas for individual member states.

The idea was to take the strain off countries like Greece and Italy, where most refugees first arrive. A clear majority of countries did agree to the proposal in principle, and that would be enough to push it through if necessary, against the wishes of countries like Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic that remain opposed. For now though, there will be further talks in the hope of maintaining unity, at a time when many of the core values of the European Union are being put under close scrutiny.

EU ministers also agreed to push ahead with robust measures to process new arrivals more quickly and efficiently, and send home those whose asylum applications are rejected. But critics will be disappointed that more decisive action was not taken, given the scale of the crisis confronting Europe.

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Crisis explained in graphics

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A list of safe countries to which failed asylum seekers can be returned - a measure that would speed up deportations - was agreed on principle.

On Monday, a number of European countries followed Germany's suit in introducing temporary border checks.

The moves are a challenge to the EU's Schengen agreement on free movement, although the rules do allow for temporary controls in emergencies.