Two people smugglers were arrested in Hungary on Monday after they shot at police and fled after being stopped with 21 asylum seekers crammed into their vehicle.
Hungarian police attempted to stop the vehicle containing the smugglers and the migrants on the M5 motorway near Budapest but as the police attempted to stop the vehicle, the smugglers tried to outrun the officers, then stopped and fired several shots.
The smugglers then attempted to flee the scene with police in pursuit and later abandoned their vehicle on the outskirts of Budapest and fled into a nearby forest while firing more shots at officers, the Hungarian newspaper Magyar Hirlap reports.
Police, joined by Hungarian counter-terrorism officers were able to locate the two men within around an hour and arrested the pair, who both claimed to be Iraqi nationals.
Despite the gunshots, including some from the police toward the two alleged smugglers, no one was injured in the incident. The migrants in the van, all of which claimed to be Syrians, were also unharmed.
Hungarian Interior Minister Sándor Pintér commented on his country’s stance on illegal migration later that day saying, “Hungary’s position is clear: illegal migration must be tackled not within the borders, but outside the European Union, and the lines of defence must be moved as far away from the borders as possible.”
Pintér went on to add that Hungary was facing the most attempts to cross the border illegally since the migrant crisis of 2015, stating that there have been migrants along the border using increasingly violent methods to cross, endangering police on the border.
Monday’s incident comes as illegal migrant traffic along the Balkan route has surged this year, with Frontex, the European Union border agency, noting that the route has seen the most traffic this year since the migration crisis in 2016.
Last month Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, with all three agreeing to extend and strengthen Hungary’s border fence and pledging to further meetings to address the surge of illegal migrant arrivals.