Survey: Most Hungarians reject European Parliamentary committee proposal for asylum system reform

A vast majority of Hungarians reject a recent proposal approved by a European parliamentary committee on reforming the Dublin refugee system, a fresh survey released by the Századvég Foundation on Thursday showed.

The pollster conducted the survey between Oct. 21-25 on a sample of 1,000 voting-age adults to learn how widely known the issue was among the Hungarian public and how its three main components were seen, Századvég said.

It found that 71 percent of respondents had heard about the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) passing a reform proposal on Oct. 19.

The three main components of the draft was rejected by an equally high proportion of respondents, Századvég noted.

Fully 70 percent opposed that all asylum seekers entering Europe should be distributed among all member states, whereas only 22 percent approved the provision.

Almost three-quarters, 73 percent, disagreed that upon meeting certain criteria an asylum seeker would be allowed the option to decide on their own which country they would prefer to settle in, as against 20 percent stating the opposite.

Exactly the same proportion of respondents rejected the provision which would restrict access to certain common EU funds by a member state that fails to fulfill its asylum-related obligations, according to the survey.

Source: MTI