Austria has summoned neighboring Hungary's ambassador to explain Budapest's refusal to take in asylum seekers sent to it from other European Union states.
A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Vienna said on June 24 that Hungary's ambassador was summoned for a meeting, a day after Budapest announced it was opting out of an EU rule requiring a migrant's claim to be processed in the member country they first arrive in.
Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz also told his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto in a phone conversation that Vienna would not tolerate the suspension, and the government asked the European Commission to look into whether Hungary had violated treaty obligations.
Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Austria and other EU states were planning to send illegal immigrants back to Hungary. "We do not agree with this," he told reporters, though he denied his government was violating EU rules.
"This unbelievable pressure from illegal immigration is causing serious technical and capacity problems," he said.
Hungary earlier this month ordered the construction of a fence along its border with Serbia to keep people from crossing illegally.