Hungary continues to reject the European Union’s Migration Pact in its current form, therefore the government has not completed a plan for its implementation in Hungary and it is “not planning to submit such a document in future“, the interior minister said in parliament’s European affairs committee on Monday, at his hearing on a meeting of EU interior and justice ministers in Luxembourg.
Only one type of help imaginable concering the Migration Pact
Pósfai said that of the pillars of solidarity outlined in the pact — quota-based distribution, financial compensation and technical assistance — Hungary considers only technical assistance to be acceptable. At the same time, that owuld require the approval of the country facing mass migration that may need such assistance, he added.
The matter was subject to a preliminary discussion at a recent meeting of European interior ministers in Luxembourg, but no agreement was reached, Pósfai said.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Pósfai had bilateral talks with his Austrian counterpart concerning Hungary’s objections to maintaining internal border controls within the Schengen area. He said the idea was raised to replace direct control of the Austria-Hungarian border with a new regime in which authorities of the two countries could jointly monitor the regions on either side of the common border.
New details about the Orbán cabinet’s planned migration camp
“There are no brakes on the Fidesz Party’s lie train,” the prime minister said on Facebook late on Sunday. Once it was revealed that the previous government had started construction of a migrant camp in 2024, “rather than making apologies”, opposition Fidesz is “calling on us not to construct such facilities,” Péter Magyar said.
Bertalan Havasi, the party’s communications chief, demanded that the government should not set up migrant facilities and “declare with no delay that it would not implement the EU Migration Pact.” Earlier on Sunday, the prime minister published further information concerning the Orbán government’s 2024 decision to build a camp for 500 people at Vitnyéd, in western Hungary, and said the construction had actually started.
“Their current narrative is that they were just playing tricks on the EU and were trying to mislead them … just like a shop-lifter found out saying that it was a trick,” Magyar said. The prime minister said relevant documents were available on the government’s website, including the minutes of a government session on Aug 21, 2024, where the location of the planned facility was mentioned. From that document Magyar quoted that “the government has established that it is necessary to escalate the political conflict concerning migration by 2026”.
Orbán government denied the construction of a migration camp
According to another document dated Aug 30, 2024, then Interior Minister Sándor Pintér told the government that full refurbishment of existing buildings at Vitnyéd could be completed within three months, and “they could be made suitable to accommodate refugees even before that”, Magyar said, and noted that Pinter had used the word “refugees” rather than “migrants” in the government memo.
At another government session, on Sept 11, 2024, the participants discussed details of the planned construction including a time-frame and budget, and agreed that the scheme could be implemented faster if classified as a “project crucial for the national economy”, Magyar said, adding that the previous government had estimated the cost at over 5 billion forints (EUR 14.2m), and about one billion had actually been disbursed.
Migration pact protest marches through Budapest as demonstrators boo PM Magyar, who responds with heart gesture
“At that time the Orbán government kept denying the plans … they laughed into the camera … and said they were not planning a migrant camp and would not build one,” he said.
Austria asked questions
Magyar also suggested that the previous government had suspended construction after “an international scandal broke out with Austria starting to ask questions why Hungary was setting up an open migrant camp just 4 kilometres from the border.” The Orbán government “could not openly promote the project from that time on and played it down … it was no longer discussed within the government, they did not withdraw their earlier approval for the project and the costs were never accounted for,” Magyar said.
“They defrauded all Hungarians, including their own voters,” the prime minister added.
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Featured image: illegal migrants crossing Hungary’s border on foot and leaving to Austria in 2015. Source: depositphotos.com
