Visegrad countries discuss sending border guards to Hungary

Ahead of meeting of the Visegrad Group taking place on 8 October 2015, the Czech Republic proposed that its four member-states helped Hungary guarding its borders by sending hundreds of troops and police.

The central Europeans had previously stressed the need to secure the European Union's outer borders as the basis of any response to the crisis. Hungary's position was seen as pivotal as it forms part of the external boundary of Schengen.

The Visegrad Four - Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - were in the spotlight over their strong resistance to mandatory national quotas to share out 120,000 asylum seekers among the EU's 28 member states, approved by a majority vote of the bloc's interior ministers in September 2015.

ESO: Background information: Anti-migrant quota EU states meet in Prague http://www.europeansources.info/record/anti-migrant-quota-eu-states-meet-in-prague/

Prague Daily Monitor, 05.10.15: PM: Visegrad Four should jointly defend Hungarian border http://www.praguemonitor.com/2015/10/05/czech-pm-visegrad-four-should-jointly-defend-hungarian-border

ESO: Information Guide: European Migration Challenges http://www.europeansources.info/record/information-guide-european-migration-challenges/

EUObserver, 15.10.15: Eastern EU states agree joint border patrols https://euobserver.com/migration/130711

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