The European Parliament has condemned Hungary’s handling of a public debate on rising migration. The move comes after Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban’s government threatened to close the country’s southern border to asylum seekers.
Mr Orban's latest clash with Brussels comes amid increasingly heated debate in the EU over how to handle a surge in arrivals from the Middle East and Africa. Many migrants move from Greece, through the Balkans and Hungary on their way to northern Europe.
The United Nations said this week that 54,000 people had landed in Italy and 48,000 in Greece since the start of 2015; according to the International Organisation for Migration, Greece saw 34,000 arrivals all last year.
Overland route
Many refugees now favour an overland route north through the Balkans and Hungary, rather than risking a crossing of the Mediterranean Sea to Italy. The result is a sharp increase in arrivals at Hungary’s southern border with Serbia.
As well as being used by people fleeing Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the Middle East, that route is also taken by migrants from Kosovo and Albania, where spiralling youth unemployment drives many to see work in the West.
Mr Orban’s ruling Fidesz Party said that by the end of May, 50,000 people had lodged asylum requests in Hungary this year. This compares with 43,000 during 2014 and just 2,157 in 2012. However, the vast majority file a request and continue moving west.
The Budapest government says it is ready to take measures to stop asylum seekers crossing into Hungary from the south, because they arrive directly from countries where they are not in danger; Serbia, Kosovo, Greece and other Balkan states.
“The Fidesz parliamentary faction is considering drawing up a Bill and practically making a proposal to close the southern border,” said senior party member Antal Rogan.
“In practice, this would mean that we’d pass a law saying that those entering Hungary from a safe country, from a safe transit country, cannot apply for political asylum here.”
At least one local official in southern Hungary has called for a fence to be built along the border with Serbia, mirroring moves made by Bulgaria and Greece to stop migrants entering their territory from Turkey.
Hungary’s government has not publicly supported such an idea, but spokesman Zoltan Kovacs did not rule it out: “We hope for the best, but are preparing for the worst,” he said.
Mr Orban has initiated what he calls “consultation” on migration, but a questionnaire sent to Hungarian households was criticised by rights groups, and has now drawn the ire of the European Parliament.
‘Increased terrorism’
Budapest was accused of blurring the distinction between refugees and economic migrants in the document, and of asking leading questions such as whether “the mismanagement of the immigration question by Brussels may have something to do with increased terrorism”.
In a resolution passed on Wednesday, the European Parliament said the language of the questionnaire was “highly misleading, biased, and unbalanced . . . establishing a biased and direct link between migratory phenomena and security threats.”
The rebuke is unlikely to deter Mr Orban, however, given his history of rocky relations with Brussels and his vocal disdain of EU “interference” in Hungary’s affairs.
Mr Orban has rejected an EU plan to distribute refugees among member states as “mad and unfair”, and this month warned against making an “irreversible” mistake on migration that could “change the face of Europe’s civilisation”.
The European Parliament also chided Mr Orban for suggesting recently that Hungary might consider adopting the death penalty.