Iron curtain descends on Europe. Again.

[zwiebel]

Hungary has announced it will build its own mini iron curtain - a fence 110 miles long and over 12 feet high - to stop undocumented migrants who gather in neighboring Serbia from crossing its borders.

.. the move triggered a swift rebuke from the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Hungary, a landlocked central European country of 10 million people, is in the EU's visa-free Schengen zone and thus an attractive destination for tens of thousands of migrants entering Europe through the Balkans from the Middle East and Africa. Most of them then move on to wealthier western Europe.

Hungary says it has seen a sharp spike in people entering the country this year; 57,000 so far.

 

[Nova]

Hungary has announced it will build its own mini iron curtain - a fence 110 miles long and over 12 feet high - to stop undocumented migrants who gather in neighboring Serbia from crossing its borders.



Hungary says it has seen a sharp spike in people entering the country this year; 57,000 so far.

If most of emigrating Serbs move on to wealthier EU countries, then what's the big deal?

(I'm not sure "Iron Curtain" is the right analogy. Churchill's phrase referred to walling people in, not out.)

 

[Cappuccino]

Its because Hungary is part of the Schengen Area. Part of the Schengen Agreement requires countries with external borders to police them and apparently, (according to Hungarian accusations), the Serbs aren't co-operating in stopping the flow of illegal immigrants into Hungary.

Therefore, they're only living up to their treaty obligations by taking more drastic measures, not sure why the UN is criticising them. If they don't like it they should really be criticising the Schengen Agreement, not Hungary.