Besides strong police presence at the Serbian-Hungarian border, the presence of the hungarian army becomes ever obvious. Troups are transported about in Armytrucks, the sealing off of Hungary is in preperation. Three days to go until an amendment to the asylum law is in force which will gives the army, in addition to police forces a mandate in the border region. Every minute refugees use the still open passages to. At #Röszke it is a gap at an unused rail track. Beside families there are several wounded. The provisioning at what the hungarian governmet calls „collection point“ field camp has improved due to international donations and self organized structures compared to last Sunday. Last week thousands of persons had to sleep outdoors in freezing temperatures. Medical treatment was not available, neither were enough tents, clothing, food and water. By now it seems that these basic needs are taken care of. Yet there are still shortages. Long-term and sustainable structures are missing. When ate the camp one can hear sporadic metallic sounds. It is workers, busy enforcing the border-fencing out of barbed. In future it should fence off refugees from Western Europe. It’s weakness made the passage possible. When you get closer to the construction site you see workers in grey uniforms. They install barbed wire at the top of the fence. Surrounding are persons in blue uniforms, giving orders. Later it becomes obvious: these are prisoners, under supervision of prison guards. Fortress Europe is built by prisoners. We get closer, make eye-contact. We see that the prisoners are given food before being divides onto trucks. We count about 50 persons, a few guards and another group of soldiers further in a field before a guard steps up to us, tries to stop us filming and pushes us away. The fence is not impressive, in spite of barbed wire and 3,5m steel posts. A little barbed wire cannot stop thousands from fleeing, this is also clear to the hungarian government, but it will make the escape more dangerous. It will become more difficult with children. It will cost more lifes. It becomes deadlier. In conjunction a new set of laws is designed to scare off border crossers already coming Tuesday. The sealing off will be enforced by military presence with a mandate to enforce laws. Asylum can only be applied for at „saftey zones“ near the fence and will be processed in speed trials.Given that Hungary considers Serbia a safe country of origin, deportations will be a daily process. Unregistered border-crossings outside of the „safety zones“ will be punished by prison sentences of several years. Refugees will consider moving to central Europe via different countries. This is also part of Orbans strategy. Even now we hear reports telling about new routes throught the balkan countries. Despite all this refugees manage to open cracks in the deadly border. The marches from Budapest, Györ, Röszke and many other cities and towns in Hungary are clear evidence. Refugees refuse to give fingerprints, brake trough police lines, pass on waiting buses to reach the countries of their desire. Dublin III could fall trugh their strengh. The last weeks were defined by solidarity with the refugees. Routes were made available by supplying food, aid in the escape offered. If we want to stop the daily killing at the borders, it is necessary to fight a racist border-regime and to establish free movement for everyone. Free movement that europeans got used to long time ago.
