As part of its EU presidency, Hungary has put forward several proposals on resolving the issue of migration, which the EU has not tackled successfully since 2015, the prime minister’s chief security advisor told public broadcaster M1 on Saturday evening.
Hungary advocates introducing an EU-wide system for asylum applications to be submitted outside the bloc, and it also champions tight controls of the external borders, György Bakondi said.
He noted increasing pressure posed by migration along three main routes: most migrants trek from Arica to the Canary Islands, while along the second most dangerous route, many Muslims are transported to the shores of Italy on small boats from the Sahara region, he said.
At the same time, the Balkan route has seen a big uptick in migration, though the Hungarian border is now under less pressure thanks to cooperation between Serbian and Hungarian police, which started last October. Afghan people smuggling rings have been forced out of the region, relocating to the Bosnian-Croatian border, he said.
Bakondi hailed Italian efforts to help the governments of Tunisia, Libya and Algeria, providing incentives aimed at preventing migration from their shores.
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Lebanon is key to maintaining stability and avoiding escalation in the Middle East, and the EU and the international community should do everything in their power to keep it out of the war, the minister of foreign affairs and trade said after meeting with his Lebanese counterpart, Abdallah Bou Habib, in Budapest on Friday. He also said that the EU should contact Bassar al-Assad or his government to end the refugee crisis and restore security.
The war in Ukraine and the danger of the Middle Eastern conflict spreading to other countries are presenting grave challenges to Europe, Peter Szijjarto told a joint press conference.
“We know perfectly well that if the security crisis in the Middle East spreads to one more country, it won’t stop at its borders but widen into a regional or even greater war,” he said.
That would put Europe in a dire security situation, “those still hanging on to the reins would then lose all control,” he said.
Lebanon is a key ally in that fight, and Hungary is urging the EU to pay the 15 million euros earmarked for the country in the European Peace Facility. “We would finally spend the Peace Facility on peace,” he said.
He said he hoped that all parties would now adhere to bilateral and international decisions.
The 180,000 internally displaced people in southern Lebanon and northern Israel should be enabled to return home as soon as possible, he said.
Foreign minister Szijjártó: the EU should contact Bashar al-Assad or his government
Lebanon’s stability is also key to containing illegal migration, as it is currently housing more than 1.5 million refugees, he said. “Should Lebanon not take care of those people … they would almost certainly leave for Europe. And we all know the effect they would have on Europe’s stability and future.”
The world had left Lebanon to its own devices in dealing with the problem, which was “not fair”, he said, calling on the international community to ensure that those refugees return to Syria, certain areas of which had become much safer in recent years.
“We are calling for the EU to give up this section of its failed foreign policy. I have been a foreign minister for ten years, I have listened to various foreign ministers and high representatives … saying we should not contact the Syrian government or President Bashar al-Assad.”
Photo: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0
“In the past ten years, I have been the only one to stay [in power] in Europe, and President Assad is also there. So maybe we should review the strategy and start providing economic aid rather than setting conditions, so that security can be restored and refugees sent back to Syria,” he said.
Should the problem go unsolved, Lebanon’s stability would be at risk “and Europe would sooner or later have to pay the price”, he said.
Hungary will continue to maintain a contingent of 16 troops in the UN mission on the Israel-Lebanon border, he added.
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The finance minister said in an interview with news portal Index published on Monday that Hungary is the EU member state paying the price for eliminating the need for border protection within the bloc.
Mihály Varga told the portal that as the minister in charge of the central budget, he had turned to the EU’s budget and administration commissioner, asking Johannes Hahn in a letter late last year for greater EU contribution to Hungary’s increased spending on border protection, which had received “a positive reaction”.
“The commissioner accepted my invitation to visit the border region in the first half of this year,” Varga said. “But what we are seeing now is a constant backing out” by the outgoing commissioner, who, Varga said, had proposed that their talks should instead focus on the priorities of Hungary’s EU presidency.
In response, the finance ministry accepted that Hungary’s presidency should be the basis for talks, indicating, however, to Hahn that stopping illegal migration was also among the key topics on its agenda in addition to the EU’s competitiveness and demography issues, Varga said. He said the commissioner had then canceled his visit.
“We created a clear situation which the commissioner no longer wanted to face, and in the last minute, he abandoned finding a solution to a serious problem for Hungary,” he said.
Varga said Hungary bearing the burden of the EU’s border protection costs violated the principles of solidarity and the fair share of responsibility within the bloc. He said that
instead of an 80 billion forint fine, Hungary should receive a 700 billion forint (EUR 1.8bn) compensation for its expenditures.
The minister said the situation was unfair and a severe burden on the state budget, noting that the country’s border protection spending was “insignificant” compared to the 67 trillion forints earmarked for total expenditure on the EU’s expected budget this year.
Asked whether Hungary’s EU presidency could “bring a turnaround” in settling the issue of Hungary’s border protection spending, Varga said it might come up at Ecofin meetings scheduled for the autumn.
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Young Hungarians are strongly anti-immigration, poll finds
Germans are reportedly finding their country increasingly unlivable, prompting many to choose Hungary as their temporary home, with some even planning to live there permanently.
More and more Germans are feeling uncomfortable in their home country due to the radically changing political situation in recent years. According to the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH), the number of Germans settling in Hungary has increased by almost 35 percent in the last four years, with local groups already organised in 20 settlements around Lake Balaton. In some regions of Transdanubia, one can now encounter real German-speaking craftsmen and service providers, reports Index.
An article in Nius.de claims that Hungary is the new country Germans are longing for. Their data indicates that the cost of living in Hungary is 46 percent lower than in the German capital Berlin, with fewer taxes to pay. Moreover, Germans are warmly welcomed in Hungary. According to the publication’s figures, around 20,000 Germans migrate to Hungary every year.
Newfound public safety attracts Germans to Hungary
source: pixabay
Recently, a letter from a German-speaking woman named Irina appeared in the newspaper. As an emigrant from Berlin, she cited good public safety as one of her reasons for choosing Hungary. She wrote about her personal experiences and the differences between her old and new home:
“Here in Hungary, we were able to go to the swimming pool without fear for the first time in years. You drive 1,400 kilometres and you’re in another world. A world where women don’t have to be afraid when they travel alone. A world where children respect their elders and don’t fight all the time. You only realise what you’ve lost when you suddenly get it back,” Irina wrote, adding that those who can are fleeing “the best Germany ever.”
The letter also reveals Irina’s fear that Germany will never be worth living in again, at least not for Germans. As she puts it: “Those we have fed for years with our taxes, those we have sheltered from war and persecution, hate us and destroy us wherever they can.”
She also notes that “85 percent of children in German schools are now migrants. Those who can afford it take their children out of school and send them to private schools instead.”
In her letter, Irina expressed her view that “a whole new society of exiles across Europe is emerging in Hungary”, where they live together peacefully, without knife attacks, and seek their own livelihoods. “This is multiculturalism in practice, not what these political fools in Germany are trying to make people believe.”
Only now, many Jews have come from all over Europe to Budapest, as Hungary is their last bastion, as I feel. And this makes me really happy,” Irina added.
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Just as new Hungarian immigration reforms were implemented by parliament in 2024, the UK Family Visa has also undergone some recent changes as part of a series of measures to reduce overall migration levels in the country.
This reform came after the Office for National Statistics released official estimates showing that net migration was at an all-time high. Although family visas represented 5% of all entry visas in 2023, there were 81,203 family-related visas issued, which is a 72% increase from 2022 and the highest year on record.
In response, the UK government increased the annual minimum income threshold for family visas to £29,000 starting 11 April 2024. By early 2025, it would rise to £38,700, more than double the 2023 threshold of £18,600.
Hungarian nationals married to or in a long-term relationship with British citizens or settled persons will need to consider this new requirement if they choose to reunite with their partners in the UK.
How the New Policy Was Announced
In July 2012, Theresa May introduced a minimum income threshold for sponsoring foreign spouses and partners, setting it at £18,600 annually. Families with children were required to earn at least £3,800 for one child and £2,400 for each additional child.
The income requirement ensures that families are self-sufficient and do not rely on public funds. It also ensures that migrants reuniting with their families can integrate into British society and contribute positively to the economy.
Over the years, however, the UK government has been clear that the net migration levels were too high, putting a strain on public services and housing. Family visa holders were also getting into work, and coupled with other work visas issued, this was undercutting British workers.
In December 2023, the Prime Minister and Home Secretary announced new reforms that affected some UK visa routes, including family visas. They stated that the minimum income threshold for sponsoring partners and spouses would reach £38,700 by Spring 2024.
However, on 21 December 2023, the Home Office released a fact sheet showing that the policy was reversed and that the increment would be introduced in three phases. This staged approach aims to give families predictability and enable them to plan accordingly.
The Details of the New Reforms
General Threshold Increment
According to the Home Office’s fact sheet, the minimum income threshold would increase to £29,000 by Spring 2024 and reach £34,500 later in the year. By 2025, it will finally rise to £38,700, bringing it into line with the minimum salary threshold for skilled workers (the 50th percentile of earnings for eligible skilled jobs.)
In line with the fact sheet, the first phase of the increment became effective on 11 April 2024.
Furthermore, under these new rules, there will no longer be an additional income requirement for families with children. The minimum income requirement will be the same regardless of the number of children sponsored.
Considerations for Those Already on the Partner Route
Additionally, the fact sheet stated that individuals already on the partner route of the family visa before 11 April would not need to meet the new income requirement when applying for an extension. That is, as long as they apply to extend their visas to live with the same partner they initially had permission to stay with.
This rule also applies to Hungarians in the UK on the fiancé, fiancée, or proposed civil partner route before 11 April but intend to switch to the spouse or partner route after the effective date.
The reforms also introduced a child component cap for spouses and partners extending their visas and fiancé, fiancée, or proposed civil partner switching to the spouse route.
According to the old income requirement, these applicants must earn an additional income for each child in their family. However, with the new child component cap, if the total earnings they need exceeds £29,000, such as if they have more than four children, their income requirement will be capped at £29,000.
Applications Not Decided Before 11 April 2024
For individuals who submitted new applications before 11 April but whose cases were not decided before the policy came into effect, the Home Office will assess their applications using the old income requirement.
The Home Office also states that the child component cap will not apply to these applications. However, if an applicant’s situation will make the old rules disadvantageous to them in comparison with the new rules, the Family Policy Team might consider using the new rules.
For instance, applicants with five children are supposed to meet a threshold of £32,000 under the old income requirement. However, if they can’t meet this threshold but evidence shows that they can meet the new income requirement of £29,000, the new threshold may apply.
Considerations for Members of the Armed Forces
When the new threshold was announced, there were some concerns for families of soldiers, as the starting salary for a trained soldier was around £24,000 in 2023.
The Ministry of Defence worked with the Home Office to lower the general income requirement for armed forces members to £23,496 annually. These changes were included in the new immigration rules published on 14 March 2024 and became effective on 11 April 2024.
This new threshold is fixed irrespective of the number of children an applicant has and those already on the family visa route will have a child component cap of £23,496 when extending their visas.
The Increase in Immigration Health Surcharge
The Immigration Health Surcharge required for certain UK visa applications, including family visas, increased on 6 February 2024. The fee for adults rose from £624 to £1,035 annually and from £470 to £776 for children under 18.
With this increase, adult applicants will now pay £3,105, and children will pay £2,328 for a 2-year and 9-month period at their first application.
The Impact of the New Rules on the Immigration Process
The UK’s new minimum income threshold seems to conflict with its goal of supporting family reunification. For instance, Hungarian immigration requirements don’t currently impose a specific income threshold for sponsors and promote the stability of the family unit.
While the UK government states that its goal is to ensure that anyone coming to the country can be supported financially, the threshold doesn’t match the average UK income. Critics also argue that it unfairly impacts lower-income earners, such as women and entry-level workers.
It has further sparked concerns that it will result not only in family separation but also in longer settlement routes as many may not be able to meet the requirement.
Disclaimer: the author(s) of the sponsored article(s) are solely responsible for any opinions expressed or offers made. These opinions do not necessarily reflect the official position of Daily News Hungary, and the editorial staff cannot be held responsible for their veracity.
A young Iraqi man separated from his family was denied food for 8 days in a transit zone. The asylum seeker was released after 10 months and is now suing the Hungarian state as a client of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee in Strasbourg.
According to the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, the young man was separated from his parents and siblings because he was older than 18 years old. He had fled Iraq with his family, and his request for asylum had been rejected twice, for which he was placed in detention, of which 306 days he was held in the Tompa transit zone.
However, the Immigration and Asylum Office (BMH) no longer gives food to adults at the immigration detention centre, which is why H.L. was deprived of food for 8 days. Until then, his younger brothers and sisters gave the young person food from theirs. He was only given food by his captors after the Hungarian State was ordered to do so by the Strasbourg Court, through the Hungarian Helsinki Committee.
The young man has taken his case to the European Court of Human Rights with the help of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. H.L. was detained in particularly harsh conditions. He was housed in a container and was not allowed to leave his detention centre for any purpose unless accompanied by armed police or security guards, and neither UNHCR nor charity workers were allowed to visit. His captors did everything possible to make him give up and “leave voluntarily” for Serbia.
However, following the European Court of Justice ruling, the government was forced to close the transit zones on 21 May 2020. H. L. was then released and has been living in Austria since then.
The Strasbourg Court ruled last week that the Hungarian state had violated the law, as no one may be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in particular starvation. The Strasbourg judges therefore ordered the Hungarian state to pay a total of EUR 3,000 in just satisfaction.
Róbert Miskolczi, the lawyer of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, who represented the asylum seeker in the Strasbourg case, said, “our client has received compensation after five years. They (transit zones) have been abolished since then, but asylum seekers are paying a high price: those who do not come from Ukraine are no longer allowed to enter the country. We are working to put an end to the forced returns that often occur.”
Several recent injustices against asylum seekers
Photo: depositphotos.com
This was not the first case recently of an asylum seeker winning a case against the Hungarian state. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee reports that an anxious Arab woman was detained in a container for patients with suspected infections, who also recently won against the Hungarian state.
The European Court of Human Rights has ordered the Hungarian state to pay EUR 3,500 in reparations after a woman from an excluded Arab minority filed a lawsuit over the trauma she suffered in a transit zone. The 27-year-old woman was kept under 24-hour observation because of her anxiety, in a container where patients with suspected infections are usually confined. She was not allowed to turn off the lights at night, claiming suicide risk, and she was not allowed to close the door in winter. She was detained in solitary confinement for 14 days in total, and since her release, she has been living in Germany, studying engineering.
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Manfred Weber, the head of the European People’s Party group in the European Parliament, leads “a pro-war, pro-migration, anti-economy coalition”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told Hungarian public radio in an interview in Berlin on Friday.
Orbán announced thousands of new jobs
Orbánalso said the openness of the world economy was a key issue for Hungary.
The prime minister said the country’s current living standards could not be kept up “solely from the market provided by ten million Hungarians”. “Isolation from the rest of the world would be tragic,” he added.
Orbán, who is on a visit to Germany, said that country was an ally in striving for an open economy. “It is also a productive country that needs to sell its products around the world, so maintaining an open world economy is in its interest,” he added.
He cited automotive giant Mercedes-Benz as an example of the ties between Hungary and Germany. Orbán said the company was about to create 3,800-4,200 new jobs in Kecskemet, in central Hungary, to produce new models and their parts.
Viktor Orbán on 12 June 2024. Photo: MTI/Máthé Zoltán
German industry is currently undergoing changes, he said, adding that “the question is whether or not Hungary will have a place in that technological change; and the answer is that yes, it will,” he said. A large part of those developments will be implemented in Hungary, creating thousands of jobs and taking a role in engineering and employee training in the process, Orbán said.
Orbán, Scholz to discuss great European issues
“That’s the first thing I will ensure with the Chancellor,” Orbán said, referring to talks scheduled with Olaf Scholz later on Friday.
Germany’s every chancellor “must give their seal of approval” for Hungarian-German cooperation, Orbán said, adding that the primary goal was to ensure Hungary had a role in German economic progress.
He said the Chancellor was an ally of Hungary in that both countries had an interest in an open economy and in pushing back against “forces in Europe that want the opposite”.
Scholz, von der Leyen and Orbán. Who will remain seated? Photo: facebook.com/deakdanielelemez
In view of Hungary’s upcoming EU presidency, Orbán said he and Scholz would discuss “great European issues too”, and “the issues Hungary wants to table and how far it wants to take them”. Those issues included Serbia’s EU integration, tax cuts, family subsidies, and improving European competitiveness, he said.
Meanwhile, Orbán said that as soon as the left wing had announced that they had made agreement at an informal EU summit this week, the EPP, “which calls itself right-wing but moves towards the left with every alliance”, joined them, agreeing on a programme “that isn’t good for Hungary and differs from the way Hungarians think.”
“This is a pro-war coalition that has banded together to speed up Europe’s slide into the war,” he said, adding that Germany was undergoing a level of militarisation unprecedented since the second world war.
Soros-plan again
Another programme of the coalition “is pro-migration; they are the ones implementing the Soros-plan”, he said, adding that American financier George Soros had said in 2015 that one million migrants should be brought into Europe every year, and that he would be happy to bankroll the project.
Orbán warned that Europe’s population was being replaced, with the number of white Christian Europeans dwindling as the number of Muslims was growing radically.
Regarding competitiveness, including issues such as boosting industry, creating more jobs, higher wages and better living standards, the European left-wing coalition “is on the side of tax rises, so it isn’t market-friendly, which isn’t good for the European economy”, he said. The coalition created “is pro-war, pro-migration and anti-economy”, he said.
Orbán said that rather than representing traditional, moderate, conservative and Christian democracy, the EPP was moving leftwards, hence a left-wing majority had formed in Europe.
Shift to the right happened
Orbán said the EPP had won the votes of moderate, right-wing voters in elections over the years but had gone on to form coalitions on the left, and so it was “pushing away” right-wing voters and “stealing” votes on the left, which he called “dishonorable”.
Even though the balance of public opinion had shifted to the right, this was not currently reflected in the power dynamics in Brussels, he said, adding however that “indirect measures” such as forming alliances and agreements on the right would make it “ever stronger”.
Orbán said the last few elections had presented a challenge to right-leaning Europeans, as many were reluctant to vote for the “robust and strengthening” right wing formed by Italian, French and Hungarian parties, among others.
More moderate Christian Democratic voters tended to vote for the EPP, he said.
The EP elections were conducted in nation states, he said, and had brought about a weakening of almost all non-right-wing governments, he added, pointing to the French and Belgian results as examples.
The shift to the right “has happened” but did not lead to a change in power because the EPP “always takes its voters towards left, leading to a left-wing rather than a right-wing majority in Europe”, he said.
Regarding the war in Ukraine, Orbán said the Western world, led by the United States, was trying to defeat Russia without getting directly involved in the conflict by “leaving it to the Ukrainians to fight the war”, once the Russian president, violating all principles of international law, had tried to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO.
NATO arms Ukraine
The West regarded this as an opportunity to weaken and then defeat Russia, instead of striving to isolate the conflict and curb the fallout of the war, which is the position represented by Hungary, Orbán said, noting that the West wanted to defeat Russia by using Ukrainian soldiers, but this was at the cost of many casualties.
Orbán said the question remained whether Ukraine would become a NATO member, that is whether “there will be a NATO flag or a Russian flag” flying in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, he said, noting that the Russians did not want to live next door to a country such as Ukraine armed with state-of-the-art NATO weaponry.
Orbán said it was hopeless for Ukraine to win the war as this was exacting a “terrible price”, which was simply not worth it. He added that hundreds of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have died so far, and one million children “will soon grow up in the eastern corner of Europe” without a father or whose father had been disabled due to war injuries.
“There will be a generation in a desperate straits, with a standard of living lagging behind that of Europeans for many years in spite of the promised reconstruction,” he added.
9 June was a referendum on war
Orbán recalled that referendums had been held earlier in Hungary on big political issues such as migration and the issue of gender, providing support for the government.
There was no referendum on the war, but European elections were held, he said. “Throughout the campaign, I said this was about war and peace,” Orbán said, adding that the people had made clear that they did not want Hungary to take part in the war.
“I said the minimum goal that we can achieve is to stop the European train headed for the war, but if we have enough support, I can pull the emergency brake, this train will stop, and we Hungarians will get off. If the lucky stars are in alignment, we can also convince the driver not only to let the Hungarians get off but also to stop the train,” he said.
Orbán said the minimum goal had been achieved, an agreement had been reached with the NATO general secretary that Hungary would not participate in NATO’s Ukraine mission with either money, weapons or soldiers.
“We also talked to the train driver, but could not convince him — he is a strong driver and can only be stopped by Donald Trump,” he said, referring to the upcoming US elections. Meanwhile, the prime minister called Hungary “an “island of peace” in terms of public security, social security and the war, Orbán said, adding that he agreed on this not only with the outgoing NATO general secretary but his successor as well.
At the moment pressure on Hungary to join the war, he said, came not from NATO but from Europe. “This battle must be fought in Brussels.”
Weber is hungarophobic
Orbán said Manfred Weber, the head of the European People’s party, had only one goal close to his heart: “to do harm to Hungary”.
“In 2019 we prevented him from becoming president of the European Commission,” he said, adding that there were also problems with Ursula von Leyen, who was elected EC president with Hungary’s support, but “she was an apprentice relative to Mr Weber’s hungarophobia”.
“As long as he is there, we can be certain that the European People’s Party is headed by an anti-Hungarian leader,” Orbán said.
He recalled that when Fidesz won the election in 2018, a few days later the Article 7 procedure was launched against Hungary with Manfred Weber’s effective support.
The same thing happened this time, he said: “the pro-peace party” won in Hungary and “the pro-war forces in Brussels immediately hit us with an unprecedented fine,” Orbán said, emphasising the close connection between the migration fine and the issue of war and peace.
Migrants no longer guests
He indicated, however, that working groups have been set up to fend this off and find solutions to make those who earn the most from migration and war pay this fine.
Orbán also touched on the issue of migration, citing Germany’s example. “This is a diverse, changed, multicultural world,” he said, where “the migrants arriving here are no longer guests, but, by obtaining citizenship in an expedited procedure, are present in the country by their own right, gradually taking it over.”
He recalled that he had taken a decision in 2015: unless Hungarians demanded that migrants should be allowed in, “we would not let them in, otherwise Hungary would no longer be a Hungarian country. Migration is one of those areas where an error cannot be corrected,” Orbán said.
“I have always advised Hungarians to say no to migration, let us resist the pressure, let us preserve our country as an island of peace,” Orbán said.
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Featured image: Manfred Weber and Péter Magyar, the leader of the Hungarian opposition
The Slovenian interior minister announced that his country would continue border control even during the summer and postponed its possible end date until 21 December. The border between Slovenia and Hungary “disappeared” after both countries joined the Schengen Zone in 2007. It seems that the measure lasted less than 15 years.
Slovenia extends border control deadline
According to 444.hu, Slovenia decided to prolong its border control on the Hungarian-Slovenian border for six more months. The new possible end date is 21 December, but the Slovenian government postponed that multiple times. The same measure applies to the Croatian-Slovenian border.
Interior minister Bostjan Poklukar announced on Wednesday that new threats appeared recently, affecting public order and safety in Slovenia and the European Union considerably. He mentioned the violence in the Middle East, the growing tensions between Iran and Israel, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, he talked about cyber attacks against Slovenia, the UEFA European Football Championships in Germany and the upcoming summer Olympic games in Paris. Mr Poklukar did not forget to mention the illegal migration, too.
The Hungarian border fence at the Serbian-Hungarian border. Is this the future of the Schengen Zone? Photo: facebook.com/UNHCRMagyarorszag
Could joint patrols be an alternative?
He repeated that Ljubljana is ready to introduce joint border patrol with Italian police officers. Such joint patrols could be an alternative to the “temporary Schengen border controls”, he added.
He said they would not like to disturb travellers, the economy or people close to the borders.
Slovenia reinstated temporary border control on 21 October 2023. That came after Rome’s similar decision. Both measures have been prolonged multiple times.
Photo: facebook.com/PoliceHungaryOfficial
Germany and Austria also reinstated border control: here’s the end of Schengen?
Germany did the same last October. According to Portfolio, they apprehended 920 people smugglers and 37,600 illegal migrants thanks to the measure. Therefore, they also prolonged it until December. Border control has been in effect on the Austrian-German border since autumn 2015.
Austria decidedto prolong border control on the Hungarian-Austrian border this April, and the measure will be in effect until November.
It seems that Schengen may collapse due to illegal migration and the growing number of violent conflicts in and close to Europe.
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32 Ukrainians detainedfor illegally crossing into Hungary in fake military truck
Hungary must comply with the provisions of the Geneva Refugee Convention, the EU’s fundamental charter and EU laws and enforce them, those “cannot be negotiated”, Othmar Karas, the outgoing First Vice-President of the European Parliament representing the European People’s Party (EPP), said on Friday, in connection with a recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the EU.
Othmar Karas. Photo: MTI/EPA/EFE/J. Casares
The CJEU on Thursday ordered Hungary to pay a lump sum of 200 million euros and a penalty of 1 million euros per day of delay for failure to comply with an earlier ruling on asylum and return. The court noted that it had ruled in December 2020 that Hungary had failed to comply with EU rules on procedures for granting international protection and returning illegally staying third-country nationals.
In a statement, Karassaid that the CJEU’s ruling “confirms” that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s “unacceptable asylum policy is unlawful”.
In the spirit of “loyal cooperation”, Hungary must observe the rules passed on the effective protection of external borders, the adoption of asylum procedure rules at external borders and regarding the solidarity mechanism, the Austrian politician said.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has fined Hungary for 200 million euros for not respecting EU legislations, including those of international asylum and on returning illegal immigrants to their home countries, the CJEU said on Thursday.
Further, the CJEU obliged Hungary to pay a penalty of one million euros for every day of delay in complying with a ruling issued in December 2022, on the country’s breach of the guidelines on asylum and returning immigrants.
UPDATE: Gulyás: CJEU ruling ‘outrageous, unfair and unacceptable’
Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, called the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union to fine Hungary 200 million euros for not complying with EU legislations on asylum and on returning illegal immigrants to their home countries “outrageous, unfair and unacceptable”.
The minister told a regular press briefing on Thursday the ruling contradicted European Union law, was incompatible with Hungary’s constitution and penalised the country which had rejected illegal migration from the beginning, protecting its own and Europe’s external borders.
This ruling “could never have been passed by a normal court,” he added.
Gulyás pointed out that the decision extended beyond the claim. The European Commission requested a condemnation of 7 million euros and a daily fine of 6 million euros until compliance, whereas the court ordered Hungary to pay a lump sum of 200 million euros and a daily fine of 1 million euros, that is seventy times the fine originally requested.
The ruling goes completely against everything we think about European law, the Hungarian constitution, the protection of external borders and effective action against migration, Gulyás said.
According to a recent Europe-wide poll, younger people in some parts of Europe are more likely to hold anti-immigration views than older generations. In Hungary, the majority of respondents view immigration from non-EU countries negatively, and Generation Z is no exception.
The Guardian analysed data ahead of the upcoming European Parliamentary elections and found that in some parts of Europe, particularly in Eastern states, young people are as anti-immigration or even more so than their older counterparts. This trend, The Guardian suggests, could indicate a future strengthening of parties with anti-immigration platforms across Europe.
The polling data cited by The Guardian was published by Eurobarometer, which categorised respondents into four age groups in their cross-country survey:
Gen Z: born after 1997
Millennials: born between 1980 and 1997
Gen X: born between 1965 and 1980
Baby Boomers: born between 1946 and 1964
Respondents were asked about their attitudes towards immigration from outside the European Union.
“Across all of Europe, baby boomers are still the generation most likely to hold anti-immigration views, but in some member states, Millennials – those born between 1980 and 1997 – and Generation Z – born after 1997 – have just as negative or even more negative attitudes towards immigration from outside the EU,” The Guardian summarised the survey’s findings.
Moreover,
“Eurobarometer results suggest that attitudes towards immigration have hardened among younger respondents in the four years since the last EU elections, reflecting an overall rise in anti-immigration sentiment across all age groups within the bloc.”
Since 2019, the proportion of Europeans aged 15 to 24 with negative opinions about immigration has risen from 32 to 35 percent. Among those aged 25 to 34, the share holding anti-immigration views increased from 38 to 42 percent between 2019 and 2023.
Hungarians are overwhelmingly anti-immigration
Looking at the data for Hungary, while the highest rates of anti-immigration sentiment are still found among Baby Boomers and Generation X (80 and 77 percent, respectively), Generation Z also shows strong opposition to immigration, with 76 percent expressing unfavourable views on this issue. The most pro-immigration group are millennials, but even among them, a majority of 68 percent have negative views on the influx of migrants to Europe.
Overall, the data shows that the majority of each generation in Hungary holds negative views on immigrants from outside the EU.
Billboards of the government in Szeged, Hungary before the 2016 referendum, reading “Did you know? More than 300 people were killed in terrorist attacks in Europe since the start of the migrant crisis” (top) and “Did you know? The Paris terrorist attacks were carried out by immigrants” (bottom). Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Similarly to Hungary, in Poland, Baby Boomers hold the strongest anti-immigration views, but there has also been a rise in the number of Generation Z individuals who harbour adverse feelings when it comes to migration.
Interestingly, overall, the percentage of those with negative views on immigration is much lower in Poland compared to Hungary: 55 percent of Baby Boomers, 39 percent of Generation X, 42 percent of Millennials, and 52 percent of Generation Z hold anti-immigration views.
Billboard put up before the 2019 EP elections, reading: “Let’s support Viktor Orbán’s program, and stop immigration!” Photo: Wikimedia Commons
A country that shows similarly high figures of disavowal as Hungary is Slovenia, where 70% of Baby Boomers, 73% of Gen X, 74% of Millennials and 59% of Gen Z think negatively about immigration from third countries.
In Finland, Cyprus and Malta, Generation Z is notably more unsympathetic towards immigration than millennials, mirroring the trends seen in Hungary and Poland.
This pattern of rising anti-immigration sentiment among the young,” The Guardian concludes, “is a marked contrast to other EU member states, which have seen consistent declines in negative attitudes across generations. In Germany, Italy, and Spain, the share of respondents saying they feel negatively about immigration consistently falls between generations.”
“The data comes as EU member states prepare for June’s European parliament elections, in which resurgent far-right parties are expected to make gains.”
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Because member states did not adopt the European Union’s migration and asylum pact in a unanimous vote, with some voting against it or abstaining, it is possible that the new European Parliament may make certain corrections to the agreement, the prime minister’s chief domestic security advisor said on Saturday.
György Bakondi told current affairs channel M1 that under a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, Hungary would have to pay a daily fine of 6 million forints (EUR 15,500) until it allowed migrants to submit their asylum applications on its territory.
Bakondi said the court wanted to wait until after the European parliamentary elections to announce the ruling.
He noted that the candidates for European Commissionpresident had stressed the importance of protecting the bloc’s external borders.
“They too can sense that the European people really don’t want to see a continuation of this mass inflow of illegal immigrants,” Bakondi added.
He said that if the court ruling were to be made public before the elections, it would turn out “that they falsely asserted the importance of the external borders, because they would fine Hungary a daily 6 million forints while saying in the campaign that the new migration pact serves the security of the European people”.
He noted that Hungary’s border fence and asylum laws prevented “masses of violent young men from flooding through the border with the help of organised crime”.
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Orbán: Brussels shot us in the back – Read more HERE
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday that the European Court had made “an outrageous decision” making Hungary pay a daily fine worth around 6 million forints (EUR 15,000) to Brussels just because it refused to accept migrants.
Orbán told public radio that it was more than shocking and “absolute nonsense” that while Hungary was protecting Europe, spending several billion euros on border protection, it was “shot in the back from Brussels”.
“The only answer to that is that we must send away the European leaders who make such decisions,” the PM said.
Hungary does not accept migrant quotas being forced on member states, Finance Minister Mihály Varga said in Brussels on Tuesday, calling it “harmful and unreasonable” that the European Union’s new asylum package would fine countries that refuse to accommodate migrants 20,000 euros per migrant.
Hungarian Finance Minister is against migrant quotas
Speaking to reporters after the Council of the EU approved all 10 legislative parts of the new migration and asylum pact, Varga said Hungary would join other member states in refusing to carry out the measures laid down in the pact, as it believes other methods were needed to handle migration.
“We should be taking the solutions to the [migrant] origin countries instead of importing the problem to Europe and sending invitations to migrants,” Varga said.
The minister said change was needed in the EU because Brussels was “relentless” when it came to the issue of migration.
He said the fence Hungary built on its southern border had so far cost taxpayers 700 billion forints (EUR 1.8bn), adding that he had turned to the European Commissioner for Budget and Administration, who still refused to approve support from the Commission for the fence.
Concerning the Council of the EU’s approval of a long-term 50 billion euro aid package for Ukraine, Varga said Hungary believed that the same regulations should apply to the utilisation of these resources that applied to EU funding in any other field.
He called for EU aid to be channelled to Transcarpathia too, as the region had been under increased pressure due to the war and displaced Ukrainians.
Varga said Ukraine had not fulfilled recommendations concerning human rights and national minorities, including those of the Venice Commission, that were tied to the funds, adding that Ukraine was expected to accept the EU’s fundamental values alongside the EU aid.
As regards the EU accession of the Western Balkan countries, Varga said their economic growth offered the bloc a chance to improve its competitiveness in relation to other continents.
He said foreign investment in the Western Balkan countries was constantly growing and household consumption was also picking up.
Brussels should be financing the enhancement of the coast guards in north Africa instead of “NGOs that cooperate with people smugglers and migrants”, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in Tunis on Monday.
Hungary will be taking over the rotating presidency of the European Union in a period fraught with dangers such as the migration pressure faced by the continent, Szijjártó said after talks with Tunisian President Kais Saied, according to a ministry statement.
He said the situation was made worse by Brussels’s “pro-migration policies”, which, he added, were bad for both Europe and north Africa because illegal immigration posed a danger to both transit and destination countries.
“There are two things that need to change in Brussels in order for us to successfully combat migration,” Szijjártó said. “The first is cutting off the funding of NGOs that cooperate with people smugglers and transport migrants.”
“These NGOs move migrants across the Mediterranean; they collude with people smugglers and bring illegal immigrants to Europe for money,” the minister said. “Brussels should be financing north Africa’s coast guards instead of these NGOs.”
“The many tens or hundreds of millions of euros Brussels spends on supporting NGOs could be used to modernise the coast guards of the north African countries, thereby stopping people smugglers and reducing migration pressure,” he said.
Szijjártó said Brussels should also “end its practice of issuing diktats to the African countries”, and instead bring its relations with those countries back to the grounds of mutual respect.
Africa’s population, he said, was on track to grow by an estimated 750 million in the next twenty years, and the continent was in need of significant economic development programmes. But, he warned, if Europe abandoned Africa, it would face “unmanageable humanitarian and security challenges” in the coming years in decades.
“We know full well how big a role the north African line of defence plays in Europe’s defence against migration,” Szijjártó said. “And Tunisia plays a prominent role.”
“We therefore call on the European Union not to interfere in Tunisia’s domestic political affairs and destabilise Tunisia, but to cooperate with it in the fight against migration under a comprehensive partnership agreement and carry out economic developments,” the minister said.
Boka: Migration, AI to be among Hungary EU presidency’s priorities
Following up on special reports of the European Court of Auditors (ECA) in areas such as migration and artificial intelligence will be among the priorities of Hungary’s upcoming European Union presidency, the EU affairs minister said on Monday. Janos Boka said on Facebook that he had discussed the Hungarian presidency’s priorities and related ECA reports with ECA chief Tony Murphy.
Boka said Hungary considered it a priority to follow up on the ECA’s special reports concerning areas such as managing the root causes of migration, AI, food labelling and the security of the EU’s gas supply during its presidency of the Council of the EU.
Finance minister: Hungary expects Brussels to contribute more money for border protection efforts – UPDATE
Finance Minister Mihály Varga has invited European budget and administration commissioner Johannes Hahn to see for himself what the situation at Hungary’s southern border is like. Since the start of the migration crisis in 2015, Hungary has spent 700 billion forints (EUR 1.8bn) on border protection, while EU contributions have barely surpassed 1 percent, Varga said on Facebook on Monday, noting in December he sent a letter to Hahn asking the EU to increase its financial contribution.
The European Commission reacted by indicating that it saw no reason to increase EU border-related financing, Varga said, adding that Hahn should visit the border “to be briefed personally on the efforts of Hungarian soldiers, policemen and other border enforcement agencies, and to see for himself the effectiveness of the Hungarian border protection system”.
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„No Migration, No Gender, No War”, a Hungarian village greets visitors – Details in THISarticle
„No Migration, No Gender, No War” is the main communication panel of PM Orbán’s ruling Fidesz-KDNP alliance for the 2024 European parliamentary election. A small Hungarian village put out a sign at its entrance with that slogan.
Jándis a small village close to the Ukrainian-Hungarian border in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, having a population hardly exceeding 700. Before, at the village entrance, there was a sign saying “Welcome in Jánd”. The incumbent mayor of the small Hungarian village replaced it lately with Orbán’s favourite slogan for the 2024 European parliamentary election: „No Migration, No Gender, No War”.
Locals of the small Hungarian village seem to support the new ‘welcome sign’
The mayor told ATV that he finds nothing problematic in the inscription and that even the opposition in the small village supports Orbán’s policies. He added that 80% of the locals agree with the Orbán quotation displayed at the village border.
Jánd’s mayor, István Asztalos. Photo: PrtScr/ATV news
ATV asked locals around whether they had met any migrants. However, the reporters of the TV channel could not find anybody who had ever seen an illegal migrant in the settlement. A local said they are afraid of the war, and he feels sorry for those involved in the violence in Ukraine. Jánd is only 10 kilometres away from the Hungarian-Ukrainian border.
The new sign is placed on both village entrances.
Here is the ATV’s report:
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Tom van Grieken at CPAC Hungary 2024. Photo: MTI/Bruzák Noémi
Tom van Grieken, the leader of the Flemish Interest party praised Hungary’s firm steps against illegal immigration, argued in favour of providing help to refugees in their country of origin and urged the deportation of illegal immigrants to their home country. He called Hungary the headquarters of conservative resistance.
Amichai Chikli, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs praised flourishing Israeli-Hungarian relations, saying that the Hungarian government was one of Israel’s main supporters. Wokeism, he said, was the enemy of family and was a threat to nation-states and diversity.
Marek Kuchinski, a representative of Poland’s Law and Justice (PiS) and the former speaker of the Polish Sejm, said the conference had brought together “free and equal countries that want to co-exist freely as equals”.
He said current challenges central Europe faced included a crisis of values, democracy and the rule of law, calling open dialogue and cooperation such as that of the Visegrád group (V4) countries “the most effective defence” against those.
Kinga Gál, the head of ruling Fidesz’s European Parliament Group, has called for preventing an aggravation of the conflict between Iran and Israel, warning that it could set off a major migration wave towards Europe.
Speaking to Hungarian reporters on Wednesday after an EP debate on Iran’s attack on Israel earlier this month, Gál said the April 14 attack carried the risk that the entirety of the Middle East could turn into a war zone, which would pose a threat to Europe’s and the entire world’s peace and security.
“The conflict must be prevented from becoming an inter-state war and from setting the entire region alight,” the Fidesz member said. “This calls for both sides to exercise restraint.”
The MEP warned that an aggravation of the conflict would have severe consequences, such as triggering a major migration wave towards Europe.
“We need to prevent the emergence of another major migration wave which would threaten Hungary and the whole of Europe,” she said.
Hungary’s interests lie in there being peace in the Middle East, Gál said, adding that the Hungarian government was sticking to its pro-peace stance despite the EP’s plan to “punish Hungary by adopting a position accusing it of spreading Russian propaganda”. Hungary, she said, would stick to its pro-peace stance concerning the Russia-Ukraine war in spite of any resolution condemning the country. She called for a ceasefire and the start of peace talks in the conflict.
