EUROPE-MIGRANTS/HUNGARY Hungary's ruling party wants to close southern border to migrants

Record ID: 151197

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/HUNGARY Hungary's ruling party wants to close southern border to migrants
  • Date: 9th June 2015
  • Summary: BUDAPEST, HUNGARY (RECENT) (REUTERS) STATUE AND BUILDING FACADE PEOPLE WALKING IN CITY CENTRE AS VIOLINIST PLAYS
  • Embargoed: 24th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA67WM2A4JWEWKBCB0LOVVY4C9J
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Hungary's ruling Fidesz party wants to draw up legislation to effectively close its southern borders to illegal migrants, a Fidesz politician has said, leading to criticism from the UNHCR.
    Prime Minister Viktor Orban has criticised European Union proposals for migrant quotas as "bordering on insanity".
    The quotas were drafted in response to the thousands of deaths among asylum-seekers trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean. The crisis has grown acute this year.
    Antal Rogan, the head of Fidesz' parliamentary group, told public radio on Sunday that by the end of May, 50,000 migrants had crossed Hungary's borders illegally, compared with 43,000 in the whole of 2014.
    Most asylum-seekers move on to other European Union member states but Germany and Austria have signalled that they were planning to send some 15,000 migrants back to Hungary.
    He said that therefore, "urgent steps" needed to be taken.
    "Fidesz' parliamentary faction is considering drawing up a bill and practically making a proposal to close the southern border with certain legal means," Rogan told Kossuth radio.
    "In practice this would mean that we'd pass a law saying that those entering Hungary from a safe country, from a safe transit country, cannot apply for political asylum here."
    Rogan said migrants' lives may have been in danger in Syria but they crossed Greece, Serbia or some other countries in the Balkans where they were already safe and could apply for asylum there.
    Hungary borders Romania, Serbia and Croatia on the south. Serbia is not an EU member, and Croatia and Romania are not members of the EU's borderless Schengen zone.
    Most asylum-seekers came to Hungary from Kosovo, Afghanistan and Syria last year.
    Rogan did not say when Fidesz would draw up the legislation.
    The Minister of State for Municipal Affairs, Tibor Pogacsas, told parliament on Monday (June 8) that stricter steps were necessary because the government feared that western European countries would soon send back large numbers of migrants to Hungary.
    "There is a serious danger at the moment that Germany and Austria, which are the primary target countries of the migrants, will take effective steps to protect themselves and they will send those migrants who crossed the Hungarian/Serbian border back to Hungary," Pogacsas told parliament.
    A UNHCR regional spokesperson said that under international law, which Hungary had also signed up to, every individual had the right to file an asylum claim.
    "As a member of the United Nations, Hungary is bound by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which says that every country has to accept asylum applications, every person has the right to seek asylum in Hungary as everywhere else. I think that's the end of the discussion," Kitty McKinsey told Reuters.
    The Hungarian government also launched a public campaign against illegal migrants last week, with billboards saying: "If you come to Hungary, you can't take away the jobs of Hungarians."
    Fidesz has lost ground in polls to the far-right, anti-immigrant Jobbik party and analysts say that its moves against migrants were intended in part to halt that.
    "What we have seen so far is that Hungary has kept the borders open, we really hope Hungary will continue to keep the borders open and we really sincerely hope that Hungary will continue to live up to its international obligations. We hope that some of this rhetoric that we are hearing is simply that, it's simply rhetoric aimed at a domestic audience and we very much hope that it's not going to be put into action, because it would be very sad for European values and for the people we serve, the asylum seekers and refugees if it were put into action," McKinsey added.
    Next week, the UNHCR is launching its own campaign on refugees to mark World Refugee Day on June 20. Posters are set to appear in underground stations next Tuesday (June 16).
    "This had been in the works long before the Hungarian government opened this discussion. We want to let people, Hungarians know that refugees are just like them, they're nannies, they are cricket players, they're tour guides, they're people who really can contribute and want to contribute to this country, so that's...It's to draw the link, the sympathy to show pictures of these people and what they already are contributing to Hungary, they learn the language, they pay taxes, they have jobs and they want to stay in Hungary if they are allowed to, if they're given the opportunity," McKinsey said.
    In May, Orban's government sent out a survey of its citizens' views on immigration is criticised by the U.N. human rights office as "extremely biased" and "absolutely shocking" because of questions that suggest a link between migrants and terrorism.
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