Today, 27 June, is the Day of the Hungarian Border Patrol. The date was designated by the József Antal administration, the first democratically elected Hungarian government after the fall of communism, in 1992. The date of June 27 was chosen, the feast day of Saint Ladislaus, the Hungarian ruler (r. 1077–1095) who organized the first Hungarian border guard. Today, he is the patron saint of border guards.
Hungary was unique in Europe for having a designated border control force in the 20th century, as in most other countries, border protection duties were handled by regular law enforcement.
In the 21st century, Hungary has once again taken unique efforts to keep its borders—and thus, the external borders of the European Union by this time—secure. In the wake of the 2015 European migration crisis, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary’s administration was the first to stand up to EU pressure to let masses of unvetted migrants in.
The fight on that front with the European Union is still ongoing. Brussels is currently fining the Hungarian government €1 million a day for not complying with the migrant quotas outlined in the EU Migration Pact of 2024.
Also in 2015 the Hungarian government erected a border fence on its southern border with Serbia, where most of the migration pressure has come from. It stretches 175 kilometres (108 miles) long and stands at 4 metres (13 feet) tall.
The exact number of agents currently serving in the Hungarian Border Patrol Force is not public, but it is estimated to be around 11–12 thousand people. They are publishing daily reports on the number of illegal border crossers apprehended and the number of illegal border crossings prevented on the designated section of the Hungarian Police’s official website.
For example, in the last three days (24–26 June), they apprehended 12, 2, and 19 illegal border crossers, respectively; and prevented 5, 22, and 47 illegal border crossings, respectively.
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