He said Hungary had asked the EC for 1.2 billion forints (EUR 3.8m) in emergency aid to fund the orphanages in Fót near Budapest and Hódmezővásárhely in southern Hungary.

Rétvári noted that the government last year asked for EU aid from the bloc’s migration fund to ease the burden the migration crisis had placed on the budget, but Hungary received no financial support whatsoever.

This means that European solidarity “is just a slogan from the bureaucrats and politicians of Brussels”. Brussels is ready to assign tasks to member states, but unwilling to pay for their completion, he said. Citing data from Hungary’s immigration office, Rétvári said some 8,000 unaccompanied children entered Hungary in 2015, more than 3,500 of whom were provided care by the state.

Fully 88% of the minors were between the ages of 14 and 18, and 99.5% of them were boys. A total of 82.5% of migrant children claimed to be from Afghanistan.

Hungary spent some 5.5 billion forints on accommodation, food and medical treatment for refugees in 2015.

He said Hungary remains committed to challenging the mandatory refugee quota system which he said would be “unlawfully and irrationally forced onto” member states.

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