Over 200 migrants were arrested this week after Serbian authorities cleared a makeshift migrant camp along the Hungarian border. Traffic along the Balkan migration route continues to surge.
The group of around 200 migrants were arrested on Wednesday morning as they were planning to illegally cross the border into Hungary, according to the Serbian Interior Ministry.
“A number of migrants were escorted by the police to the migrant reception centre, and others were taken to the competent prosecutor’s office,” Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin said, the European Union-funded website InfoMigrants reports.
“Our country… will not be a parking lot for migrants,” Vulin said. “Serbia is not and will never be a place for criminals and scum who traffick human beings and earn money from their pain and suffering.”
The Interior Ministry also noted that they had seized cash and weapons during a search near the town of Srpski Krstur, which also lies along the Hungarian border.
Activity along the Balkan route has surged this year. Earlier this week, Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić met with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán and Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer to discuss the growing number of illegal arrivals.
The three leaders agreed to strengthen the border fence along the Serbian-Hungarian border and extend it by around seven miles, while also increasing its height to just over 16 feet. The leaders also proposed further meetings in Belgrade and Vienna to discuss more measures.
“Serbia does not want to become a hotspot, we do not want people to stay with us,” President Vučić said following the meeting, while Prime Minister Orbán noted that illegal migration had taken a back seat to other issues in Europe, such as the war in Ukraine and the looming winter energy crisis.
Other Central European countries have also reported large increases in illegal migrant arrivals, such as the Czech Republic.
The Czechs say that arrivals have increased by around 1,200 per cent this year and they recently enacted temporary border controls along the border with Slovakia, a fellow EU member-state.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.
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