As part of the border police cooperation of the Visegrád nations, another 40 Czech police officers were deployed to Hungary on Sunday to help man its border with Serbia.
Jenő Szilassi-Horváth, deputy chief of police of Csongrád-Csanád county, said that the Czech police are providing tangible assistance to the border guard. During their two-month service, members of the previous contingent assisted Hungarian police in the arrests of more than 6,000 migrants in 777 cases of attempted crossings.
Last year, Hungarian authorities took action against 49,000 migrants in Hungary’s southern Csongrád-Csanád county, according to Szilassi-Horváth. This year, that number has already exceeded 8,200 in January alone.
The Czech police will assist the border guards in their Szeged and Kiszombor offices. They will work with their own equipment, vehicles and under the supervision of Hungarian police until March 24, police colonel Miroslav Tóth said.
Tóth, who will command the Czech contingent, said that his colleagues had arrived in Szeged in 16 vehicles, SUVs and a prisoner transport, and that their work was supported by night vision devices and two police dogs. Their most important task is to protect the Schengen border and to arrest border violators.
The colonel stated that he had already served in Szeged back in 2016, adding that the experience gained at that time, such as handling larger groups, has been invaluable in implementing security measures in the Czech Republic.
