Weather conditions and the strengthening of police services are leading to a sudden decrease in migrant arrivals in southern Slovakia.
Illegal immigrants have almost completely disappeared from the border between Hungary and Slovakia.
For a few months, tens of thousands of people crossed the Ipel River in the hope of obtaining a residence permit in Slovakia.
At the end of September, groups still continued to cross every day before almost everything stopped.
István Deák, ex-mayor, Sečianky: “About two weeks ago it all almost disappeared, almost overnight. This may also be due to the weather conditions, because of the border river, the Hungarian side and the Slovak side are separated by the Ipeľ.”
The footbridge in the village of Iplel’ske Predmostie was one of the most frequented crossings by migrants.
In recent weeks, everything has changed.
Ádám Magyar, Euronews: “The small footbridge is currently impassable. There are still some parts protruding from the flooded river in the middle, but both ends are underwater and the area around is completely flooded by the Ipel’. “
The icy water of the Ipel discourages candidates for exile.
Only a few abandoned clothes and sleeping bags bear witness to the passage of migrants a few weeks ago.
Local residents are relieved.
Viktor Lestyánszky, mayor of Ipeľské Predmostie: “(The residents) are happy about it, that’s clear, and rightly so. When groups of 30 people arrived every day, sometimes at night, it was worrying. Especially for the villagers, or for the mothers whose children walked alone to the bus stop to go to school.”
Šahy is a Slovak town close to the Hungarian border and there too arrivals have declined sharply.
“They come, but less and less,” says a resident of the city. “There are no longer three or four rounds a day. Fortunately, there are fewer.”
According to local residents, the strengthening of police services and the weather conditions explain the sudden decrease in migrant arrivals.
