Migrants walk at a platform at Viennas Westbahnhof train station on September 6, 2015. (AFP photo)
Hungary on Thursday backtracked on its proposal to establish controversial "transit zones" at its border with Serbia, where authorities had planned to hold asylum seekers while their applications were being processed.
The proposal had drawn criticism from the UN's refugee agency earlier this week, because the zones were meant to be established within a small no-man's land area outside the Hungarian border, raising questions over who would have jurisdiction there.
"There will not be transit zones. They will be replaced by these processing points," Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief-of-staff Janos Lazar told journalists at a press conference in Budapest.
The points could be located either at the Roszke refugee camp, right near the Serbian border, or at other camps around the country, he added.
"If a refugee arrives at the border and wishes to submit a request for asylum, colleagues of the immigration office will deal with those requests at several points other than the current legal border crossings," Lazar said.
The transit zones had been part of tough new legislation, which was passed by parliament last Friday, in response to the huge numbers of migrants arriving on a daily basis.
Hungary, which is one of the main gateways to the European Union for refugees coming via Greece, Macedonia and Serbia, has already seen 162,000 people crossing its borders illegally this year, and its conservative government is struggling to cope.
The majority of migrants enter via the flashpoint village of Roszke, which has been the scene of a number of scuffles between police and migrants in recent days.
'Not thought through'The laws, due to come into effect on September 15, will grant more authority to the police, allow for the army to be deployed to the border, and make illegal border crossings a criminal offence leading to deportation or even jail.
On Tuesday, UNHCR's Europe director Vincent Cochotel had expressed unease over the proposed transit zones.
"In those 60 metres (195 feet), the authorities cannot have the space, capacity or staff to change (asylum) procedures on September 15. I don't think the authorities have fully thought through how it can work in practice," he said.
"It is important that the implementation of that legislation is well thought through... Otherwise that could lead to chaos after September 15 at the border," he said.
Hungary in late August completed a razor-wire barrier along its 175-kilometre border with Serbia which is however not proving to be much of a hindrance.
It is however also building a fence four metres high that it aims to complete by the end of October or early November.