Hungary set to see more refugees, says research firm

The draft includes a proposal to allocate a quota for the number of asylum-seekers to be received by each EU member state, based on certain indicators, the research firm said.The firm’s analysis based on the EU proposal showed that had the quota system been introduced last year, Hungary would have had to grant asylum to nearly six times as many immigrants as it actually did.

The European Union received 625,000 asylum requests in 2014, 185,000 of which were granted by member states, they said. Although Hungary received some 43,000 illegal immigrants last year, only 500 of them were granted refugee status, amounting to a 0.3 percent share of the total number of refugees in the EU, the Center for Fundamental Rights said.

The centre said that applying the Commission’s proposed allocation method to last year’s figures shows that Hungary would have been expected to take on 1.53 percent of the total number of asylum-seekers in the EU, meaning that Hungary would have had to grant refugee status to 3,000 of the 185,000 people who were taken in by the European Union in 2014.

As the number of asylum-seekers in the EU has increased by 400,000 since 2008, and given that one third of the requests for refugee status were granted, it is safe to assume that based on this proposal Hungary would be obliged to grant asylum to even more immigrants, the analysis said.

The analysis noted that although the proposal was not yet legally binding, it could lay the foundations for a common immigration policy which could be enforced after 2016.

The research firm said such an agenda would require the support of all member states, however, recent comments from certain heads of government suggest member states and EU bodies are set for a hefty debate.