Migrants at Hungary border become part of election campaign

By JUSTIN SPIKE
Associated Press

MAJDAN, Serbia (AP) — Hungary’s nationalist leader is keen to use the threat of migrants at his country’s southern border to give him an advantage in the upcoming general election. But the scale of migration pressure claimed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban is drawn into question by statistics from neighboring Serbia and the European Union’s border agency. Many migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and other countries make dozens of attempts to cross into Hungary and authorities apprehend them and return them to Serbia. This practice is known as a “pushback” and it has been declared illegal by the EU’s top court. It also leads to misleading statistics kept by Hungarian authorities and aids Orban’s anti-immigration campaign.