Portraying Hungary as a border fortress against illegal migration into Europe is a central theme of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's close-fought campaign for re-election on April 3, but Hungary's borders still appear increasingly porous.
France is overwhelmed by migrants, said Orban in a recent speech, while Italy's border is "as leaky as a pasta strainer" - rhetoric seen as a voter-winner in his ruling Fidesz party's rural and conservative strongholds.
Data, however, suggests that thousands of migrants successfully cross Hungary's southern borders with Serbia and Romania, part of which is fenced off and heavily guarded, then travel across the country to western Europe.
Frontex, the European Union's migration agency, said illegal border crossings jumped 124% on the Western Balkan route in 2021 from 2020. In January alone, Frontex recorded nearly 6,000 illegal crossings on the route, 148% more than a year ago. The migrants' top three countries of origin were Syria, Afghanistan and Turkey.
The number of illegal migrants intercepted in Austria, meanwhile, doubled to about 40,000 last year from 21,641 in 2020 according to a spokesman at the Austrian Interior Ministry, with the bulk of those arrivals recorded near the Hungarian border.
