Hungarian Parliament to vote on migration bill in February

Parliament is expected to vote in February on a new package of laws aimed at fighting illegal migration and boosting Hungary’s security, government office chief János Lázár said on Thursday.

The government believes it important that organisations that support and organise illegal migration, and receive foreign funding, should operate transparently, Lázár told a regular press briefing. The bill obliges such organisations to register their activities and pay a 25 percent tax on donations received from abroad to be spent on border protection costs. Additionally, organisations could be subject to a restraining order with possible identical consequences to a ban, Lázár said. “If I had to mention an example, I would say that employees of the [Hungarian] Helsinki Committee could fall in that category”, he added.

Since the planned law will apply only after it enters force, this will give an opportunity to US financier George Soros to stop “financing illegal migration” to central Europe, Lázár added. If in the future Soros refrains from such activities the law will not apply to him or to “his organisations”, he said.

The draft package also aims to prevent civil groups from using European funds “to organise migration”, Lázár said.

He said Hungary last year gave asylum to nearly 1,300 people because “we help those who are in trouble”. He added, however, that those granted asylum are “not to be taken for economic migrants” whom Hungary “seeks to stop”. Since Jan. 1, some 50 people have been granted asylum and the number could grow between 500-1,000 by the end of 2018, Lázár said.