Second line of defence

János Lázár said the Hungarian government does not mind helping migrants, but added that “if we help them here, we will draw them here”, whereas if Hungary offers to help them in their countries of origin, they will stay there. Concerning mandatory migrant quotas, Lázár said the redistribution scheme would affect the lives of every Hungarian, adding that everyone needs to be given the right to decide whether they reject or approve of the scheme.

He said the opposition parties who turned to the Kúria, Hungary’s supreme court, over the government’s planned referendum intend to alter the country’s ethnic makeup. Lázár said the Visegrád Four grouping remains convinced that a second line of defence is needed on the Balkan route in Macedonia against the migration wave. On a related subject, Lázár said that Hungary took in many of the 50,000-100,000 refugees who fled south-western Ukraine due to the armed conflict there.

Human rights principles

Meanwhile the Hungarian foreign ministry said it was “outrageous” that some European leaders have criticised the Hungarian government for “exercising a fundamental tool of democracy” by initiating a referendum on the EU’s mandatory migrant quota scheme.

The ministry responded to remarks Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland made to the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday in which he implied that by holding the referendum, Hungary was “retreating from” European human rights principles. “States cannot simply opt in and out of their international obligations as they see fit,” Jagland told the council, referring to the referendum initiative.

Hungary’s foreign ministry rejected Jagland’s “accusations” in a statement and stressed that Hungary has always complied with all international conventions. The ministry said that in line with international accords, Hungary provided care for 400,000 migrants last year, but added that the government sticks to the stance that no international agreement ensures illegal migrants the right to decide which European country they want to live in. Hungary will protect both its own borders and those of the Schengen Area, the ministry insisted. The Hungarian government has challenged the migrant quota scheme in the European Court of Justice it added.

Increasing pressure

While illegal migration has stopped along Hungary’s border with Croatia since the section was sealed in mid-October last year, migration pressure has increased along the border with Serbia over the past weeks, daily Magyar Hírlap reported. Hungarian authorities have not detained any migrants attempting to cross illegally into Hungary from Croatia, but have made 60-70 arrests a day along the Serbian border over the past few weeks, national police ORFK told the paper.

The right-leaning paper said that the national immigration office (BÁH) has received 2,667 asylum applications since mid-October until February 23. Sixty-seven of these have been accepted and 375 rejected while the asylum procedure was terminated in 290 cases due to either a withdrawal of the application or the applicant leaving the country, the office told the paper.

The office will soon open two reception centres to operate temporarily near the Austrian border, one at Körmend with a capacity of 500 and the other at Szentgotthárd for 300 people, Magyar Hírlap said.

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