Head of the Hungarian Prime Minister's Office Gergely Gulyas announced in July the creation of border guard detachments totaling 4,000 men to take the burden off the army and police due to heightened tensions on the country's southern border.
"Members of the Hungarian armed forces have completed active combat duty on the southern section of the border, and on Thursday, December 29, members of the border guard units took over their duties," the ministry said in a statement.
Over 263,000 illegal attempts to cross Hungary's southern border have been registered this year, versus 122,000 attempts in 2021 and 46,000 in 2020, according to Interior Ministry State Secretary Bence Retvari.
"Migrants are becoming more and more aggressive, with 15 police officers and 29 soldiers injured in their attacks this year... 2,500 of the detained traffickers are citizens of 73 countries," Retvari said.
Over the recent years, migrant detention has cost Hungary 3 billion forints ($8 billion), while the maintenance of border guard cost 650 billion forints, with 98.5% of the amount paid by Hungarian taxpayers, according to the state secretary. At the same time, he noted that Hungary was protecting "the security of all of Europe."
After the 2015 migration crisis in Europe, Hungarian authorities adopted a harsh policy toward migrants and refugees crossing the country's borders. For this, Budapest has been heavily criticized by UN humanitarian agencies and the European Union.