Viktor Orban, the newly reelected President of Hungary, ran on a platform of curtailing the migrant influx into Hungary and opposing the EU’s plan to relocate migrants all over the bloc, including Hungary.
So he proposed legislation, which was later passed into law, that considered levying a 25% tax on foreign contributions to NGOs, although that aspect of the bill was later scrapped.
The newest addition to the ‘Stop Soros’ package is offering to jail NGOs which help position migrants inside Hungary.
Euractiv reports:
Individuals or groups who help migrants not entitled to protection to submit requests for asylum or who help illegal migrants gain status to stay in Hungary will be liable to jail under legislation submitted to parliament on Tuesday (29 May).
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government has also proposed amending the constitution to state that an “alien population” cannot be settled in Hungary, rejecting European Union quotas to distribute migrants around the bloc.
In power since 2010, the right-wing nationalist Orbán has tightened state control over the media and campaigned on a platform of fierce hostility to immigration – policies that have put him in conflict with the European Union, which funds development policies to the tune of billions of euros a year.
The new bill also says that foreigners who sought to enter Hungary via a third country in which they were not directly exposed to persecution would not be entitled to asylum.
.@eszterz has the latest on Viktor Orban’s latest crackdown. Hungarian NGOs and the Central European University are in trouble, while it could become a crime to distribute informational leaflets about migration: https://t.co/6ADDhWpotC #Hungary #Soros #Fidesz #CEU pic.twitter.com/ouMjzi087S
— BerlinPolicyJournal (@BerlinPolicy) May 29, 2018
The draft legislation, which was immediately condemned by the UN refugee agency, is part of Orbán’s campaign against EU migration policies and against George Soros, a Hungarian-born US financier known for funding liberal causes.
The legislation comes only weeks after Orbán was re-elected by a landslide, and shows a hardening of his stance just as crucial talks begin about the EU’s next budget which proposes spending cuts in ex-communist countries of central Europe.
The text of the legislation, known as the “Stop Soros” bill and posted on parliament’s website, said: “Those who provide financial means … or conduct this organisational activity (for illegal immigration) on a regular basis will be punishable with up to one year in prison.”
“We need an action plan to defend Hungary and this is the STOP Soros package of bills,” the interior ministry said in a comment accompanying the legislation.
It said there were international and also Hungarian organisations helping the entry of illegal migrants to Hungary, adding: “Sanctioning these is justified.” It did not name any groups.
The government has said the bill intends to deter illegal immigration Orbán says is eroding European stability, and risks undermining Hungary’s Christian culture.
While more than one million mainly Muslim migrants have entered the EU since 2015, few have sought to settle in Hungary. Official data show that in 2017 a total of 1,291 migrants obtained some form of international protection in Hungary, mostly Afghans, Syrians and Iraqis recognised as refugees.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR urged Hungary to scrap the draft law restricting non-governmental organisations, saying it would deprive refugees and asylum-seekers of vital services and encourage “rising xenophobic attitudes”.
“UNHCR is seriously concerned that these proposals, if passed, would deprive people who are forced to flee their homes of critical aid and services, and further inflame tense public discourse and rising xenophobic attitudes,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement in Geneva.
Fierce campaign
The new “Stop Soros” bill no longer contains a 25% tax that its previous version in February wanted to impose on foreign donations to non-governmental organisations that back migration.
But the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, which provides legal aid to asylum-seekers, said the bill was still “unacceptable in a democratic state” and against European democratic values.
“The government threatens those who stand up for human rights with the criminal code,” the committee said in a statement, stressing that its activities were all lawful.
Soros was publicly vilified during Orbán’s campaign for April elections. Orbán’s anti-immigration stance is particularly popular with voters in conservative rural Hungary.
Orbán has accused Soros and the NGOs funding him of plotting to undermine Hungary’s Christian character by flooding it with immigrants, an allegation Soros has repeatedly denied.
The proposed constitutional amendment submitted on Tuesday would also provide a legal basis for the establishment of new administrative courts and a high court to deal with lawsuits concerning the public sector, flagged by the justice minister earlier this month.
While the NGOs go about denying that their efforts are often geared towards destabilizing governments in order to install a more liberal regime, recent protests against the Hungarian president would seem to indicate otherwise, as these are typically a hallmark of NGO activities, as they are often involved in such subversive tactics.
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