40 Slovak Police Officers to the Hungary-Serbia border

Slovakia is sending 40 police officers to help Hungary protect the Hungarian-Serbian border, which is plagued by illegal migration, the Slovak public news agency TASR reported on Thursday, citing a statement by Interior Minister Roman Mikulec.

He said that the Slovak police officers would be deployed in mixed teams with their Hungarian counterparts, and that their mission would last for two months. The duration of their mission will be reviewed after the two months depending on the current situation. He added that the future will tell whether other countries will join the reinforcement of the protection of the external borders, so that it "makes sense."

The Slovak interior minister said his country was also preparing to send 20 to 30 police officers to reinforce the EU's Border and Coast Guard Agency, because "Frontex needs to be helped to protect the external borders.".

Slovak national police chief Stefan Hamran said the mission to Hungary was "mostly symbolic moral support."

He stressed that the protection of the external Schengen borders is not the responsibility of one state but of all concerned. He pointed out that, while police on the Slovak-Czech border, for example, were apprehending a few hundred illegal migrants a day, the number of illegal migrants on the Hungarian-Serbian border was in the thousands.