If Brussels wants migrants, it can have them: Hungary's new plan for asylum-seekers

Aug. 23, 2024, 4:02 a.m.

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In an effort to curb migration, Hungary’s government said that it is ready to give every migrant trying to enter Budapest, a one-way ticket to Brussels. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s administration insisted they would have to take this action if a top EU court ruling forced the European nation to adopt a “no-detention” refugee policy.

“After the asylum procedure, we will offer all migrants at the Hungarian border the opportunity to be transported to Brussels voluntarily and free of charge,” Gergely Gulyás, a minister in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s office said in a government’s weekly briefing on Thursday. “If Brussels wants migrants, it can have them," he added.

Gulyás declared that the asylum seekers “can then negotiate with the European Commission regarding their own care.” Hungary's statements came months after the Court of Justice of the European Union imposed a 200 million euro fine on Budapest for disregarding EU asylum regulations.

Why is Hungary in trouble?

The country which has been ruled by Orbán’s right-wing Fidesz party, has been notorious for taking a hard stance against asylum-seekers entering the country. In 2020, a court in Luxembourg ruled that Budapest failed to comply with the European Union’s rules on the treatment of migrants by “unlawfully detaining” asylum-seekers and deporting them before they could appeal the rejection of their applications.

The highest EU court has been pressing Hungary to modify its refugee policy, but the Orban government has often disregarded these directives. In June of this year, the ECJ criticized Hungary for neglecting the issue, describing the whole ordeal as an "unprecedented and exceptionally serious violation of EU law."

In addition to the 200 million euro fine, Hungary was also asked to pay 1 million euros for each day it failed to comply with the court’s ruling. Budapest in turn filed a lawsuit and is now hoping to recover some of these costs from the European Commission.

Hungary’s proposal has a US connect

In the Thursday briefing, Gulyás emphasised that Hungary is unable to come to a “reasonable agreement” with the Commission and accused the ECJ of creating an “unacceptable, intolerable and unfair” situation. He insisted that if the matter is not resolved, Budapest will be taking “unorthodox steps” and will let all asylum-seekers into the country and offering them a one-way ticket to Brussels.

Interestingly, the Hungarian government's proposal mirrored the strategy employed by the Republican Party in the United States. In 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis implemented a similar tactic regarding asylum-seekers entering the US border.

The DeSantis administration transported approximately 50 migrants on a flight to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. DeSantis asserted that he orchestrated the flights to expose “liberal hypocrisy.” Previously, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey had sent migrants by bus to states that supported Democratic candidates.

With inputs from agencies.