Budapest, July 10 (MTI) – The majority of migrants coming to Hungary are not driven by economic reasons but are fleeing countries stricken by war or ruled by dictatorship, the co-head of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee human rights organisation said on Friday.
Most of the migrants registered in Hungary over the past several weeks have come here from countries like Afghanistan or Syria, where they cannot be returned to due to the situation there, Marta Pardavi told a press conference.
Most of these people would most certainly be eligible for asylum or some form of protection under “fair procedures ensuring appropriate guarantees,” she said.
No European Union country considers Greece, Macedonia or Serbia a safe country and the Hungarian government’s readiness to do so is “unheard of” in asylum policy circles. The Helsinki Committee will seek EU legal remedy over the new Hungarian regulations concerning migrants, she said.
In response to the argument that illegal entrants are criminals, Pardavi said crossing a border illegally was not a crime but a misdemeanor, provided the entrant is not armed. She noted that Hungary had received 8 million euros of support in connection with tasks related to asylum-seekers from the EU last year.
Hungary will continue to receive political refugees from war-stricken countries as it has done in the past, the parliamentary group of the ruling Fidesz party said in a statement. A majority of illegal immigrants — in their opinion — are not political refugees but economic ones who abuse the EU’s asylum and human rights laws, the statement said.
Photo: MTI