Director-General of the Office of Immigration and Nationality held a press conference on last year's migration numbers. According to Zsuzsanna Vegh “last year was an extraordinary one, Hungary experienced unprecedented migration pressure”.
Ms Vegh stated that the number of illegal immigrants highrocketed last year with 414 thousand people crossing the Hungarian border illegally. “Although Hungary had previously indicated on various international forums that the significance of the Balkan route in illegal migration would increase, European Union decision-makers did not regard these indications as a serious risk”, she added.
According to November figures, with 177 thousand asylum requests, Hungary registered the second highest number of such requests last year in the EU. Moreover, Hungary was the very first among the member states regarding the number of asylum-seekers per one thousand population.
The Immigration Office had to spend roughly 5.5 bn HUF to provid food, accommodation, healthcare services and benefit payments to refugees. Whereas the Immigration Office's budget was 9.7 bn HUF at the beginning of 2015. Later on Hungary spent further 10 bn HUF to be make the Office able to manage the migration crisis. Parliamentary State Secretary Karoly Kontrat added that the EU had supported Hungary with much less amount of funding than other migration-affected EU countries.
