Hungary's Orban wants to speed up border fence construction

Viktor Orban was quoted Tuesday's edition of the pro-government Magyar Idok (Hungarian Times) daily newspaper as saying that he was persuaded of the need for more workers on the project after an unannounced inspection of the barrier on Monday with his chief of staff, Janos Lazar.

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Hungary initially said that a 4-meter (13-feet) high fence would be built on the 174-kilometer (109-mile) border with Serbia by the end of November, but in July Orban called for it to be completed by Aug. 31.

A government statement implied that Defense Minister Csaba Hende resigned Monday because of the unsatisfactory pace of construction by the military. In Greece, the coast guar

d said Tuesday its patrol vessels picked up nearly 500 migrants in 11 search and rescue missions over the past 24 hours in the eastern Aegean Sea.
The people, whose nationalities were not immediately clear, were found in small boats near the islands of Lesbos — which accounts for nearly one in two migrant arrivals in Greece — Samos, Kos and the islet of Agathonissi.
More than 15,000 refugees and migrants are stranded on Lesbos, awaiting screening before they can board a ferry to the Greek mainland — from where they head north through Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary to seek asylum in more prosperous European countries.