Hongaren zijn slimme mensen
 

Hungary announced plans on Wednesday to build a four-meter-high fence along its border with Serbia to stem the flow of illegal migrants, a move that triggered a swift rebuke from the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Hungary, a landlocked central European country of 10 million people, is in the EU's visa-free Schengen zone and thus an attractive destination for tens of thousands of migrants entering Europe through the Balkans from the Middle East and Africa. Most of them then move on to wealthier western Europe.

"The EU's countries seek a solution (for the problem of immigration) ... but Hungary cannot afford to wait any longer," Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told a news conference.

"We are talking about a stretch of border 175 km (110 miles) long, whose physical closure can happen with a four-meter high fence," he added.

The fence will evoke memories of the Cold War-era barriers -- including the Berlin Wall -- that separated communist eastern Europe, including Hungary, from the capitalist west.

Szijjarto said the fence would not violate any international agreements and that the government would hold a high-level meeting on July 1 with Serbia, which is not in the EU but wants to join, to discuss the plans.


http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...0OX17I20150617