Armed migrant hunters on the Hungarian border?

The local mayor and field guards are hunting for migrants during the evenings in a small town called Ásotthalom.

Toroczkai saw armed migrants as well

“SHOCKING: Armed migrants on the Hungarian border!” László Toroczkai, President of the Mi Hazánk Mozgalom (Our Country Movement), published a video on his Facebook page.

The video shows people climbing over a fence, one of them holding a rifle in his hand. According to Toroczkai, this video was made on the southern border at Ásotthalom where he is the mayor.

(this part starts at 00:58 in the video)

Conflict with Freedom Rights activists

In the video, Toroczkai first accuses the government of deliberately arresting illegal border crossers only later, saying that the government will not act because it would be bad in the election campaign period if it turns out they cannot protect the border, summarises 444.hu.

He then goes on to say that the Society for Freedom Rights (Társaság a Szabadságjogokért – TASZ) reported the Ásotthalom field guard to the state police, so the police also invited two of their subordinates for questioning. According to Toroczkai, the field guards employed by the municipality have the right to take action against “migrant criminals who cause damage to our forests, damage to our homesteads, damage to the border fence itself”. Therefore, if Mi Hazánk, his party, is elected to Parliament, it would mean the end of TASZ, says the politician in the video.

TASZ told 444.hu that they did not actually file a complaint but asked the government office and the police to investigate whether the Ásotthalom field guard was operating legally.

László Toroczkai, leader of Mi Hazánk Mozgalom and the mayor of Ásotthalom
Photo: Facebook

Previous actions of Toroczkai on video

In a video published earlier in the autumn entitled “HUNTING ON THE BORDER AFTER THE ATTACKS”, Toroczkai showed and described in detail how the field guard works “during deployment”. They appear to be looking for traces of illegal migrants in the woods at night, armed, and the municipal surveillance camera system is also used for this purpose. It is claimed the field guard has been performing this task for years, and thousands of people have been captured.

However, according to TASZ, the job of field guards is to protect the arable land, the machines, buildings, and values there. “If they hit someone in action as they damage or set fire to a straw storage building, for example, they have the right to take action. They can prevent the crime and notify the authorities. But they do not have any authority to perform law enforcement and border protection tasks in an organised manner,” said Erna Landgraf, an employee of TASZ.

According to her, they are actively searching for these people and trying to arrest and intimidate them, for which they have no right.

In the end, the police did actually assess the public interest report of TASZ and initiated proceedings for “unauthorised performance of public safety activities”. TASZ received a response from the government office that they would investigate the activities of the field guard and the local government but were also waiting for the position of the police.