Little sympathy from Hungarians

BUDAPEST, Hungary — A makeshift camp of thousands from the Middle East, Asia and Africa has been dismantled at Budapest’s Keleti train station, and its inhabitants have left for Germany. But the loathing of them lingers in Hungary, which hopes to build a border fence strong enough to keep out future waves of asylum seekers.

“We need the fence,” said Istvan Szabo, a 43-year-old lathe operator having a beer at a bar next to the station, where hundreds seeking refuge in the European Union still line up daily to buy tickets to Western Europe.

The tent city sprang up last month when the government blocked the asylum seekers from travelling by train to Austria and Germany. Authorities finally gave in last weekend and sent buses to take them to the border with Austria.

Szabo, like many in this socially conservative land of 10 million, said he doesn’t understand why they’ve come.

“If they couldn’t solve their problems back where they live, why do they think they’re going to be able to solve them here?” Szabo said.

Such lack of sympathy is a striking feature of the massive march this summer from Turkey through southeastern Europe. Many of the trekkers interviewed by the Associated Press say their worst experiences have come in Hungary, where farmers hiss at them in disapproval and the government leaves their care mostly up to unpaid volunteers.

A recent opinion poll sponsored by the Budapest think-tank Republikon found that just 19 per cent believe Hungary has a duty to take in refugees, while 66 per cent deem them a threat and say they should not be let in.

The Ipsos survey of 2,000 people, published Aug. 27 as the Keleti camp was growing, had a margin of error below three percentage points.

Government billboards warn the newcomers to respect the country’s laws and culture, but the signs all are in Hungarian, which virtually none of them can read.

Then again, it’s hard to find one intending to stay in Hungary anyway.