(ANSA-AFP) - BELGRADE, 07 FEB - Hungarian police reopened a
border crossing with Serbia on Friday, a day after hundreds of
migrants ended a protest demanding entry into Hungary.
The protest came a week after dozens of people tried to get
into Hungary at another Serbian border crossing during the
night, prompting security staff to fire warning shots. Hungarian
police say there has been a sharp rise in attempts to enter the
country from the south since December. "The Tompa road
border-crossing has been reopened," said a statement on the
police website Friday. Several hundred people, including women
and young children, arrived on Thursday at a strip of land
between Serbia and Hungary demanding to be let in. The migrants
wrapped themselves in blankets and huddled in tents during a
sit-down protest lasting several hours in bitter cold, young
children held placards saying "We are just refugees, not
criminals" and "We are running from war not hunger". They were
later taken by bus to reception centres in Serbia, Svetlana
Palic, spokeswoman for the Serbian commissariat for refugees,
told AFP. Their claims will be processed in the same way as
those of other asylum seekers, she said. Hungary says more than
3,400 attempts to cross the border were made last month alone,
compared with several hundred a month in 2019. During 2015's
migrant crisis, Prime Minister Viktor Orban erected a
razor-wire-topped fence at the 175-kilometre-long
(110-mile-long) frontier - one of the EU's external
borders.(ANSA-AFP).
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