Schengen zone to take effect at Budapest airport in March

Although the Schengen zone permissions have been in effect on train and road travel since Hungary joined the zone on December 21, they will not take effect at airports until March 29, the first day of the summer timetable, writes bud.hu.

Hungary's membership of the Schengen zone also resulted in the consolidation of the customs office into the police force. Some 44,000 officers have remained in the merged enforcement authority, with only 1,300 people taking the option of retirement.

As Hungary is now an outer border of the EU, officers have begun using the Schengen Information System, a comprehensive governmental database system used for border security and law enforcement purposes. Thanks to the database, several illegal immigrants have already been stopped. In Letenye (Croatian border), for example, four people were sent back to Croatia after the system showed they were not authorized to enter the country. Two other people needed to provide additional data about themselves before being admitted into Hungary, writes Népszava.

In related news, the Museum of Military History has opened a new permanent exhibition on the history of Hungarian border patrols. The exhibition displays uniforms, weapons and tools used by border guards throughout history, as well as related articles, such as the wire cutter used by Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Horn and his Austrian counterpart Alois Mock to ceremoniously cut the iron curtain on June 27, 1989.

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