Hungary has reached its tolerance for fleeing refugees related to the crisis in Syria, after announcements that a razor wire fence spanning the Serbian border to its south would be completed by October.
The fence was originally planned for an October 31 completion, but has recently been expedited for completion within weeks. The number of refugees fleeing to European countries has been rising ever since the Arab Spring in 2011, which in Syria was followed by a crackdown from al-Assad’s security forces.
Around four million refugees have been fleeing the brutal campaign of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in some cases clinging to the underside of vehicles or overloading life rafts as they try to find a place to stay while war rages at home. Many have been living in camps in Turkey and other countries, with no options to better their situation for months or years.
Fed up with the situation, they have made the choice to flee to Europe in many cases, putting them on a path through Hungary if they go by land, and by sea to Greece.
A barb wire fence seems rather tame compared to previous efforts by the U.S. and European countries to stem the flow of refugees by paying former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s government to intercept and return migrants that were fleeing to Europe in the years before the Arab Spring.
Following Gadhafi’s fall in 2011, the flow of migrants began to climb, reaching its highest levels this year with the addition of refugees from Syria.
Most European nations are unwelcoming to migrants, but Germany is one exception, allowing asylum to any refugees as long as the country of origin is deemed “unsafe.” In an announcement on Tuesday, the nation stated that it can harbor 500,000 refugees per year for several years.
Countries in the region will look to employ their own security measures as the situation in the Middle East continues to escalate. The rising conflict between Sunni and Shia Islam was most recently illustrated with the pledge by majority Sunni nations Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar to send more troops to Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is battling Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.
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