Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban said he will ship illegal immigrants to Brussels if the European Union sends them to his country. Like America, Europe is experiencing a mass influx of illegal immigrants, and the EU’s Brussels-based bureaucracy insists that all nations must take their fair share. Its leaders have threatened nations with financial penalties and imposed enormous fines if they reject the migrants, but Hungary has consistently refused to open its borders.
In June, the EU’s European Court of Justice imposed a 200 million euro fine (roughly $220 million) on the Hungarian government, but Orban refused to pay it. Instead, he took to social media to declare that the EU cares more about illegal immigrants than European citizens. The deadline date for payment passed with no response from Hungary, sparking an internal row that commentators suggest may escalate. The European Commission, the leadership of the EU, has pledged that if Hungary refuses to pay, the amount will be taken from the country’s allocated share of the EU’s budget. The Court of Justice also stated that it would add 100 million euros to the fine for every day it remains unpaid.
EU rules demand that member nations must not reject “asylum seekers” and must allow them to live in their countries until they exhaust often lengthy asylum applications and appeals. Hungary, however, has constructed guarded border walls and refuses to let people enter. It has also deported people who have gained entry, including people fleeing Syria, in contravention of European Union laws. Additionally, Hungary has detained illegal immigrants in preparation for deportation, sparking fierce criticisms from EU bureaucrats.
The EU accused the Hungarian government in Budapest of “deliberately” committing an “unprecedented and extremely serious infringement of EU law.”
In more recent policy announcements from Brussels, the EU requires member countries to take thousands of illegal immigrants from “front line countries” who have so far borne the brunt of the mass migration. Italy, Spain, and Greece are often the first countries migrants enter, given their geographical location, and have been forced to house hundreds of thousands of people from unknown countries and often with concealed identities.
