Police Deployed to Strengthen Serbian-Macedonian Border Security

A new contingent of Hungarian police, this time consisting of 30 officers, has been sent to the Serbian-Macedonian border to assist Serbian police in the apprehension of human smugglers and illegal migrants, the communications service of the National Police Headquarters (ORFK) reported on police.hu.

On 4 February, the contingent was seen off by Lieutenant Colonel Gergely Czukor, Head of the ORFK Border Police Department. The Lieutenant Colonel pointed out in his speech that people crossing the Schengen border illegally can do harm with stones, sticks and stabbing and cutting tools, but there have also been cases of Molotov cocktail attacks. “In 2025, the number of people entering and attempting to enter the border illegally rose again,” he warned.

Hungarian police officers are going to Serbia for the 26th time to assist their colleagues there in preventing and detecting illegal border crossings, and in catching human smugglers and illegal migrants.

Lieutenant Colonel Gergely Czukor. Photo: police.hu

The members of the team will mainly be on patrol. They will not only be on duty in the immediate vicinity of the border, but also on roads in the low-lying areas, he detailed. The contingent will also support the protection of the border section with all-terrain vehicles, hand-held night vision devices and hand-held thermal imaging cameras.

The Hungarian police is committed to trying to manage the migratory pressure on the Western Balkan route outside the European Union and is working closely with the authorities of the neighboring countries to this end, the ORFK statement said.

Fact

The latest report by the EU’s border and coast protection agency Frontex says between the beginning of January and the end of December, 17,001 border crossers tried to enter the European Union. Although an annual decrease of 78% in illegal migration was recorded on the migration route via the Western Balkans, it is still roughly affected. The Hungarian-Serbian border, lying on the Balkan route, saw 39 border crossers apprehended by police in the first ten days of the year. Although joint action by Hungarian and Serbian police has led to the diversion of the route towards Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy, now this seems to be changing, as this year, the number has risen to 381 in the same period.

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