Guest workers in Hungary a security threat?

The opposition Jobbik-Conservatives party protests against the government using “Hungarian taxpayers’ money” to support the employment of foreign guest workers and has initiated a security screening of those workers whom the party considers “a security threat”, Jobbik politicians told a press conference on Tuesday.

Dániel Z. Kárpát, a lawmaker, said that central subsidy allocated by using taxpayers’ monies to three battery plants in support of creating jobs might have totalled 60 million forints (EUR 155,000). He added that those jobs were being filled for instance with “Kyrgyz and Filipino” guest workers.

“The government should use this money to subsidise jobs at Hungarian SMEs,” he said at the press conference held in front of the Samsung-owned battery plant in Göd, just north of Budapest. Zoltán Sas, the head of parliament’s national security committee, said he had submitted a written question to the minister overseeing the secret service to inquiry whether foreign guest workers arriving in Hungary were subjected to a security screening in advance.

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Zoltán Péter Varga, a district leader of Jobbik, critisiced the government for designating the Göd plant as a special economic zone. “Revenues generated in this zone in business taxes will land in the coffers of the county government which can distribute the funds as it pleases, for instance it can use the funds to support civil organisations linked to the government to create pro-government propaganda media,” he said.