Magyar government’s decision about the EU’s Migration Pact as new details emerge about the planned migrant camp

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.

Protecting Ukrainian citizens

They also discussed temporary protection to Ukrainian citizens, Pósfai said, adding that some member states with a large number of Ukrainian refugees, as well as Ukraine itself, had argued against extending asylum for Ukrainian men of military age.

European Commissioner Magnus Brunner reported that illegal entry across the common borders had been reduced by 37 percent in 2024 and by by 21 percent in 2025, and called the Schengen regime functional, Posfai said, but also quoted the commissioner as calling for further strengthening control at the common borders, reforming the EU’s visa policy and simplifying administration between member states.

Participants in the meeting discussed Russia’s “hybrid threat” against Europe, and said that an increasing number of tourist visas issued to Russian nationals and the presence of former Russian fighters in the Schengen area were posing security risks, the minister said.

The participants also supported more stringent visa requirements for Somalian nationals in view of the fact that the highest number of migrants in the EU were Somalis, and that the country would not repatriate more than 3 percent of those expelled from the EU. The meeting also supported that European financial aid should by tied to a country’s readiness to repatriate expelled illegal migrants, Posfai said.

Hungary’s position is that challenges associated with migration should be addressed in the countries of origin or in nearby transit states, he added.

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 the first 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.

Magyar: Orbán government misled Hungarians over Vitnyéd migrant camp

Prime Minister Péter Magyar slammed top officials of the Orbán government in parliament on Monday, saying that leading politicians had all been clear-eyed about “the way Hungarians were hoodwinked” over the purpose of a camp constructed in Vitnyed, in northwest Hungary. “They made detailed plans, decisions, and started spending taxpayer money on it,” Magyar said in a speech ahead of the agenda.

The camp originally housed Ukrainian refugees in the camp in Vitnyéd-Csermajor, “but then [the Orbán government] instructed the authorities to boot out the [ethnic] Hungarian refugees so they can bring in 500 migrants. They all misled Hungarians,” he said.

Magyar quoted Gergely Gulyás, the former head of the Prime Minister’s Office, as saying that the camp’s construction had been a trick to mislead the European Union “but then didn’t remember what lie he told earlier. In September 2024, he still insisted they were building a student camp,” he said.

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Featured image: illegal migrants crossing Hungary’s border on foot and leaving to Austria in 2015. Source: depositphotos.com