UNHCR launches billboard campaign to combat anti-immigration voices

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is launching a billboard campaign to mark World Refugee Day on 20 June, hirado.hu reported.

In its statement concerning the launch of the campaign, the international organisation writes that the four different billboards, which are to be posted in the stations of metro lines 2 and 3 in Budapest, depict refugees living in Hungary who contributed to the development of the country.

With its billboard campaign, the organisation wishes to mirror the image of the government’s anti-immigration billboard campaign, which has been at the centre of Hungarian public discourse in the past few weeks. However, UNHCR claims that the timing is a mere coincidence.

Picture 1

The UNHCR billboards feature a restaurant owner from Bangladesh

“We want to live here, this is why we opened our restaurant”

Picture 2

A nursery worker from Togo

“Children are full of love, they do not have preconceptions”

Picture 3

A tour guide and self-confessed fan of the Hungarian poet and national hero Sándor Petõfi from Afghanistan

“I have become obsessed with Hungary”

Picture 4

And a Pakistani player for the Hungarian national cricket team

“I want to play for this country”

The Hungarian government, after launching a national consultation on immigration and terrorism that operates with loaded questions and was damned for its bias and xenophobic nature all over Hungary and Europe, has topped up its anti-immigration game by putting up billboards with captions like “If you come to Hungary you cannot take the job of Hungarians” or “If you come to Hungary you must obey our laws”.

Earlier on 8 May, UNHCR already spoke out against the growing expression of xenophobia in Hungary when it learned about the national consultation, saying: “We are deeply concerned by the way the government increasingly vilifies people who have fled from war zones like Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and who desperately need safety and protection in Hungary.”

based on the article of hirado.hu
translated by Gábor Hajnal

Source: http://kettosmerce.blog.hu/