Hungary police block more than 100 illegal refugees

BUDAPEST (AA) - Hungarian security forces blocked 158 refugees trying to enter the country in illegal ways from Dec. 16 to 18, says Hungarian National Police Center on Monday.

The center said that 232 refugees were avoided between Dec. 5 and 11 and 274 were blocked between Dec.12 and 18.

For refugees, Hungary is on the way to pass into the western Europe.

In 2015 the country installed razor wires on its Serbian and Croatian borders to stop the refugee flow. Additionally Hungary enhanced penalties applied for illegal crossings by announcing a state of emergency in border areas.

As part of the precautions against refugees, Hungary reinforced borders with soldiers and police with the support of Visegrad Group partners, Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the "Arab Spring" uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more displaced by the conflict.