Hungary makes it a crime to help asylum seekers

HUNGARY’S parliament yesterday passed legislation making helping asylum seekers punishable with up to a year in prison.

The legislation swept through a lower house of parliament dominated by Fidesz, the country’s governing party, by 160 votes to 18 despite calls from the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s human rights watchdog, for the vote to be delayed until the law was reviewed.

Under the provisions of the new legislation, nicknamed the “Stop Soros” law, it becomes a criminal offence to carry out “organisational activities” that assist immigrants not entitled to protection with asylum requests, and to help people “residing illegally in Hungary” to get a residence permit.

Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister, campaigned on the unfounded theory that George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire financier, wants to flood Europe with Muslim immigrants. Orbán’s party was re-elected with a two-thirds majority in April.

Critics of the law say that it is vague and that organisations offering legal advice and charity to immigrants could fall foul of it.

They say it represents a further attempt by the government to silence or eradicate NGOS that do not conform to its nationalist policies and agenda.

Mr Orbán has accused NGOS funded by Mr Soros of conspiring against the state and representing a threat to national security.

Vowing to defend “Christian Europe”, Mr Orbán made the “Stop Soros” bill a flagship piece of legislation, and one of first to be passed by the new parliament.

The parliament also approved a change to the constitution that states that an “alien population” cannot be settled in Hungary.

The introduction of the law could propel the Hungarian government towards another bruising encounter with the EU over refugees.