Hungary announces new law targeting migrant aid groups
January 18, 2018
Prime Minister Orban's government will levy a tax on groups that receive foreign funding. The groups' foreign employees could also face expulsion. The move is part of Orban's so-called "Stop Soros Plan."
Image: imago/Xinhua/S. Voros
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Hungarian Interior Secretary Sandor Pinter, on Wednesday, announced a new law to be proposed by Viktor Orban's right-wing nationalist government. The law would, among other things, put a 25 percent tax on civic migrant aid organizations that receive more than half of their funding from abroad.
The organizations would also be required to register with Hungarian courts and their foreign employees could face expulsion if the government should determine that they have aided "illegal" migration. Groups that fail to register would also face fines.
Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said religious groups like the Red Cross or those which distribute food would be exempted from the law's requirements, adding: "Giving assistance is not the same as actively taking part in someone crossing the border illegally."
Another aspect of the proposed law that has caused concern among rights groups is the government's stated desire to issue restraining orders barring citizens suspected of "organizing illegal migration" from getting closer than eight kilometers (4.97 miles) to any of Hungary's Schengen borders.
The law would be part of the government's so-called "Stop Soros Plan," named after Hungarian-born, Jewish-American billionaire philanthropist George Soros.
Soros, who has been a vocal critic of the prime minister, has been the target of a fierce propaganda campaign by Orban, who blames Soros for personally helping "illegal immigrants flood Europe," robbing it of its "Christian and national identities." Orban has never offered any evidence to substantiate his claim.
Last year, Hungary passed a law requiring all organizations receiving more than €24,000 ($29,400) annually to register with Hungarian courts. Moreover, the law also requires such groups to prominently display the words "foreign organization" on all of their publications.
That law is currently the subject of a breach of contract dispute between Hungary and the European Union.
Viktor Orban's most controversial migration comments
Hungary's right-wing prime minister has been one of Europe's leading voices against migration into the EU. Unafraid of controversy, he has described migration as an "invasion" and migrants as a "poison."
Image: Reuters/B. Szabo
'Muslim invaders'
"We don't see these people as Muslim refugees. We see them as Muslim invaders," Orban said in a recent interview with German daily Bild newspaper. The 54-year-old prime minister of Hungary added: "We believe that a large number of Muslims inevitably leads to parallel societies, because Christian and Muslim society will never unite." Multiculturalism, he said, "is only an illusion."
Image: Reuters/F. Lenoir
'You wanted the migrants, we didn't'
When asked by Bild whether it was fair for Germany to accept hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants while Hungary accepted none, Orban responded: "The difference is, you wanted the migrants, and we didn't." Migration, he said, threatens the "sovereignty and cultural identity" of Hungary.
Image: Reuters/L. Balogh
'Migration is poison'
It was not the first time the Hungarian leader has framed migration as a problem for his country. In 2016, he said that Hungary "does not need a single migrant for the economy to work, or the population to sustain itself, or for the country to have a future." He added: "for us migration is not a solution but a problem ... not medicine but a poison, we don’t need it and won’t swallow it.”
Image: picture alliance/dpa/AP Photo/P. Gorondi
'Importing homophobia'
Orban has repeatedly criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her decision to allow over a million migrants into Germany in the summer of 2015. Orban told Bild in early 2016: "If you take masses of non-registered immigrants from the Middle East into your country, you are importing terrorism, crime, anti-Semitism, and homophobia."
Image: Reuters/L. Balogh
'All terrorists are basically migrants'
Orban has also repeatedly criticized the EU for trying to get member states to share refugees based on national quotas. In a 2015 interview with POLITICO, he suggested the bloc's leaders instead focus more on strengthening the EU's external border. In the same interview, he said: "Of course it’s not accepted, but the factual point is that all the terrorists are basically migrants."
Image: Getty Images/AFP/S. Bozon
'Parallel societies'
Orban has found allies in other right-wing governments in eastern Europe such as Poland that also oppose the EU's refugee policies. In an interview with Spanish TV channel Intereconomia in 2015, Orban raised fears about integrating Muslim migrants in the EU when he said: "What sort of Europe do we want to have? Parallel societies? Muslim communities living together with the Christian community?"
