Speaking in support of the motion, Lajos Kósa said earlier that “if someone is a refugee they must stop at the place where their lives are no longer threatened.” Együtt said Hungary should participate in a Europe-wide resolution to the refugee crisis. The opposition party’s lawmaker Zsuzsanna Szelényi said: “Prime Minister Viktor Orbán or Fidesz may decide that Serbia is a safe country but this will not make it so.”

The government can build the fence as planned but this will not stop the influx of immigrants, she added. “All this will achieve is that it will become legal to return refugees to countries where they don’t have adequate protection,” she said.

The opposition Dialogue for Hungary (PM) party demands that European Union funding should be turned towards upgrading unused barracks in the country to be opened up to refugees and the immigration authority should take on 100 extra staff to help process applications.

Tímea Szabó, the party’s co-leader, said that these measures should help prevent any fraught incidents such as the row between two residents of an overcrowded refugee camp in Debrecen, in eastern Hungary, which escalated on Monday afternoon when around one hundred migrants threw stones at cars passing by.

All parliamentary parties should join professionals to form a consultation body to address the issue, she said, blaming the government for the conflict at the Debrecen camp, which has operated at 200% capacity for the past six months.

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