The EU has complained about Hungary’s remarkably strict asylum laws and requested a sanction from Budapest before the EU Supreme Court.
A minister responded to heavy fines recently imposed on Hungary for its stringent migration policy by saying that the government is willing to offer free one-way flights to Brussels for irregular migrants and asylum seekers trying to enter the European Union.
Gergely Gulyas, chief of staff to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, criticized a June ruling by the European Court of Justice ordering Hungary to pay $216 million in fines for repeatedly violating the bloc’s asylum rules, plus an additional 1 million euros per day until its policies are in compliance. The ruling was made during a news conference in Budapest on Thursday.
Gulyas stated, “Brussels wants to force us at any cost to let migrants in,” a reference to the EU’s Belgian headquarters.
He declared that Hungary would provide “transport to Brussels free of charge” to all migrants if the EU persisted in imposing laws on the country that “does not make it possible to detain migrants at the border”.
strict asylum regulations
Since more than a million individuals entered Europe in 2015—the majority of them were fleeing conflicts—the government of Hungary has adopted a strict stance against immigration.
The nation established two transit zones for the detention of asylum seekers on its border with Serbia, as well as razor-wire-protected walls along its southern borders with Croatia and Serbia. Since then, those transit areas have closed.
However, the EU has objected to Hungary’s exceptionally strict asylum laws and requested that Budapest pay a fine to the EU’s top court for compelling individuals seeking international protection to travel to its embassies in Serbia or Ukraine in order to apply for a travel permit. This is a breach of EU regulations requiring all EU members to have uniform asylum procedures.
Consistently at odds with the EU, Orban has previously pledged that Hungary will not alter its immigration and refugee laws in response to any decisions made by the European Court of Justice.
“Hungary doesn’t want to pay this daily fine indefinitely, so we will make it possible for people to enter if they want, and will offer them a one-way ticket to Brussels,” Gulyas said on Thursday, criticizing the fines Hungary has accrued due to its asylum system.
He went on, “Boltz can have migrants if it wants them.”
Hungary’s plan to ship migrants to Brussels is reminiscent of similar actions taken by Republican states in the US, who, in opposition to federal asylum processes, have been bussing or flying undocumented immigrants to Democratic bastions like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago since 2022.
