by A.P.
Numbers remain high during long New Year’s weekend
December brought a significant rise in the number of illegal entry attempts to Hungary which continued during the long New Year weekend, data from national Hungarian police showed.
The week before Christmas from Dec. 14 to Dec. 20 showed the largest number of detected illegal crossing attempts, mainly on the Serbian border to the south and the Romanian one to the east. During that week, police and border guards foiled 1,326 crossing attempts and led another 1,490 people back to the country where they entered from, bringing the combined number to 2,816, compared with an average of around 800 per week during the entire year and a low of just three attempts and 23 apprehended violators in the third month of April, during the severe lockdown during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
During the long weekend leading into the New Year’s alone, from Jan. 1 to Jan. 3, police and border guards stopped 506 entry attempts, and while we are only halfway through the first week of 2021, the numbers continue to remain high.