French army soldiers stand in position in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis city center on November 18, 2015. PHOTO: AFP
The two men, named as Jonathan K, 40, and Trevor B, 44, were intercepted on Saturday on an international train at Lokoshaza, a crossing point on the Romanian border.
According to a Hungarian police statement, the pair each served two jail terms totalling five years in Britain. After their release in 2009, both were barred from leaving Britain without permission.
The two men were taken into custody by Hungarian police because they did not have legal documents entitling them to stay in the EU member state. One of them presented a British driving licence and the other just a Quran.
Only after their detention did it emerge that both were subject to a European arrest warrant, police spokesperson Viktoria Csiszer-Kovacs told AFP. "The men will appear shortly at a court in Budapest to decide on the extradition," Csiszer-Kovacs said.
She added that it was unclear what their intended final destination had been, although it was possible they were on their way to Syria via Bulgaria and Turkey.
There was no suggestion that the men were implicated in Friday's deadly attacks in Paris.
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