Hungary has suspended the application of a key EU asylum rule, according to which a migrant's claim should be processed in the EU country they first arrive in, a government spokesman said on Tuesday. "The boat is full," Zoltan Kovacs told Austrian media, referring to the recent influx of migrants. "We all wish for a European solution, but we need to protect Hungarian interests and our population."
So far this year some 60,000 refugees have entered Hungary, most of them via Serbia, according to government figures. In 2014, Hungary already took in more refugees per capita than any other EU country apart from Sweden, recording 43,000 arrivals in total. Many try to continue on to other EU member states, including Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany. Under the so-called Dublin III regulation, these nations can return the asylum seekers to Hungary to process their application. But Kovacs said his country no longer had the capacity to accept further refugees.