Hungary to reject 52,000 migrant relocation requests from EU – UPDATE

Budapest, May 26 (MTI) – Hungary will reject requests from European Union member states to relocate migrants here, government office chief János Lázár said.

“Nobody can be relocated to Hungary, people must be sent to Greece,” he told his regular weekly press conference on Thursday.

Member states altogether have indicated plans to relocate 52,000 migrants to Hungary, most of them from Germany. Hungary has told all its partners that if these migrants had arrived to Europe through Greece, they must be sent back there even if they were not registered there.

Lázár said it was a question to be asked how it was possible that the EU will agree with Turkey, considering it a safe country, but not with Greece.

Accusing Hungary of being reluctant to help is “unfair”, Lázár said, and insisted that the country had ensured political asylum to 300 migrants in 2016 only. He noted that fewer than 10 percent of the migrants seeking to enter Hungary declare themselves as Syrian.

The minister said that “Hungary does not need immigrants” and argued that if the country needed more workforce, “it would assist young people to have more children” or invite job seekers “from the former Hungarian territories”.

Concerning critical remarks by former US President Bill Clinton, Lazar said Hungary was interested in good relations with the US, but compared Clinton’s words to a “punch in the face”, which Hungary cannot “let pass”.

As for George Soros, Lazar said that the American financier sees Hungary “as a country blocking immigration which he thinks would help Europe”. “Soros has identified himself as a direct opposition to the government of Viktor Orban,” Lazar added.

At the press conference, government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs was asked about a Soros scholarship he had earlier received. The spokesman said he had not received “any scholarships with a clause attached” to stipulate what political views he should have. He added that his private life before 2010 has “nothing to do” with his political activities since then.

On the same subject, Lazar said he consulted the prime minister, who had also been a Soros scholarship fellow. “If that is a problem and if Soros needs the money” all Fidesz politicians and government officials will be ready to refund the scholarships, Lazar quoted Orban as saying.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters