Providing health care for migrants would require the capacities of an entire additional hospital, which would costs tens of billions of forints (tens of millions of euros).

Based on the average cost of health care for one Hungarian citizen, two years’ worth of health care for migrants would cost the state as much as what was spent on reducing hospital debt this year, he said. The fact that any pre-existing medical conditions of migrants are also unknown would make things even more difficult, Rétvári said, adding that the risk of an epidemic would also potentially increase.

Nor is the welfare system prepared for an influx of migrants, as they would also have to be entitled to child care and family benefits. Judit Bertalan Czunyi, state secretary of public education, said the migrant relocation scheme would also have unpredictable effects on Hungary’s public education system.

As the scheme would impose a number of migrants equivalent to the population of the city of Szeged on Hungary, the public education system would have to accommodate tens of thousands of children, she said.

The costs, however, would be more than just the additional cost per child as such an increase in students would require more classrooms, special teaching methodologies and more textbooks, none of which the public education system can afford right now, she said.

The language barrier for these children would also be a serious issue, she said, adding that the education system does not have enough teachers to teach Hungarian as a foreign language.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu - Visit Hungary Matters to sign-up for MTI’s twice-daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Kovács Tamás