Every year on June 20th, countless NGOs, civic organizations, and international institutions around the world celebrate World Refugee Day in order to draw the public’s attention to the millions of refugees worldwide who have been forced to flee their homes due to war, conflict and persecution. This year, Fidesz, Hungary’s ruling party, found a different way to celebrate June 20th. On Wednesday, the parliament approved a package of amendments called “Stop Soros.” The bill introduces a new category of crime – “illicit assistance for immigration.”
Szilárd István Pap, a Hungarian anthropologist, political analyst, and journalist, explains how the newly approved “Stop Soros” bill will affect those who help the refugees, and how it fits into the broader anti-migrant rhetoric pursued by Fidesz.
Maria Ciupka: In 2015, more than 391,000 refugees crossed into Hungary. What happened to them? Where are they right now?
Szilárd István Pap: 2015 was the year when most of the refugees were passing through Hungary with the purpose of reaching Western Europe, Germany, France, and also Scandinavian countries. Part of the the reason why there were so many refugees in Hungary is associated with the EU Dublin procedure [editor’s note: Dublin Regulation is an EU law that determines which EU member state is responsible for examining asylum seekers’ application seeking protection under the Geneva Convention within the EU.] The procedure prescribes that a refugee entering the EU should start their application for asylum in a member state that they enter first. So a lot of people who entered Hungary, a border country of the EU, thought that they should start their asylum procedure right there. This is why there were huge numbers of people staying in Budapest close to the Keleti railway station, or camping in other squares in Hungarian cities.
For a while, the Hungarian government did not allow them to board trains or go westwards. Then, at a certain point in the Summer of 2015, the refugees started marching towards the Austrian border. It was an organized march of several thousand people. That was the moment when the government decided to somehow suspend the Dublin procedure and provide buses for the refugees aiming westward. So basically, in a couple of days, most of the refugees present on the territory of Hungary were leaving on buses and travelled towards Austria.
The number of refugees in Hungary dropped to just 203 in 2018, according to the Ministry of Interior in Hungary.
The big change came on September 15th 2015, when the border fence at the Hungarian-Serbian border was finalized. Since then, nobody could actually enter the territory of Hungary. This also meant that thousands and thousands of people were gathered at the border fence in September and October. There were some protests there. They were sleeping in the open air because the government allowed only a few people into the transit zone. Most of the asylum applications were rejected and refugees were sent back to Serbia. That was the situation in 2015.
Since then, we cannot talk about any significant number of people entering the country illegally, because the border fence makes it impossible. Only the people whose asylum applications are considered favorably can enter. This amounts to around 1000 people per year. But most of the people who apply for asylum are rejected.
Currently, the Hungarian government is about to vote on the new bill that criminalizes helping illegal immigrants. Is this a novel proposal?
Yes, and no. It’s not a novel proposal. The government wanted to adopt this law already a couple of months back, before the elections in April 2018. But before the elections they did not have the 2/3 majority needed for it to be passed by the parliament. So, they waited until after the election, and now they have 2/3 majority again so they can adopt this legislative package. It is not a separate law, but a package of amendments to different kinds of laws entitled “Stop Soros” bill.
What exact changes does the “Stop Soros” bill introduce?
Basically, the bill introduces a new category of crime called “illicit assistance for immigration”. It means that you cannot give any kind of assistance to people who entered the country illegally. Or, you cannot even offer assistance in applying for asylum to people not eligible for asylum. So this is a very strange and circular kind of argumentation. In practical terms, it means that if an organization offers assistance to a person to start the asylum procedure, and at the end of the asylum procedure the authorities decide that that person is not eligible for asylum, then the assisting organization becomes a criminal. The idea behind is that beforehand you cannot decide whether someone is eligible for asylum or not. I cannot look at a person and know that, only the authorities can decide whether he or she is eligible. The only thing I can do is to offer assistance in the asylum procedure, at the end of which you find out whether the person is eligible for the asylum. But at the end, if the authorities decide that they are not eligible, then if I give assistance, I will be committing a crime. This can be punished with prison between 5-90 days. The law also forbids people from assisting illegal immigrants in obtaining legal residency status.
Additionally, new legislation changes the refugee law and states that no person who is passing through a “safe third country” is eligible for asylum in Hungary. All the countries neighboring with Hungary are declared “safe countries”. Anybody who is passing through one of the neighboring countries in order to enter Hungary, is not eligible for asylum. So let’s imagine a Syrian person is coming, and they are passing through Serbia, for example. Serbia is a “safe country”, so the government says: “ok, you are not eligible for asylum in Hungary, because Serbia is a safe country, why not stay there?”
And of course, if you commit these so-called “crimes” repeatedly, or you give financial aid to asylum applicants, organize networks, distribute leaflets or informational materials…then the punishment can be more severe. If you do it repeatedly or in an organized fashion, or you give financial assistance as well, then the prison sentence can be harsher, even up to 2 years.
Compared to the initial proposal from February, this is a less strict version of the law. There were two more things. One was that all the NGOs and organizations dealing with migration need to be registered by the Ministry of Interior. The second one was that these registered organizations have to pay 25% tax for any donation coming from abroad.
How is the new law going to affect the work of NGOs and activists who help refugees and asylum seekers in Hungary?
In my opinion, the purpose of this law is to generate fear among the NGOs, civic organizations, and activists. There are two possibilities: the law itself is so vague and circular that it doesn’t apply to anybody.
All the civic organizations that help asylum seekers are dealing with people who have legal status in Hungary. They already started their asylum procedure and until the decision is made, they can stay in Hungary legally. So basically nobody is actually helping illegal immigrants coming to the country. They cannot come to Hungary because there is a fence at the border. In one sense, this is a rhetorical tool for the government — to show how tough it is
The other possibility is that because the law gives so much space for interpretation, basically anybody can be prosecuted based on it. It can be either applied to everybody or to nobody, it’s that kind of situation. It’s such a vague and rubber law that it can be bent according to the will of the government. But honestly, I don’t think anybody will be prosecuted based on this legislative change. I believe that it’s mostly for show.
What other political goals is Fidesz trying to pursue with the “Stop Soros” bill?
I think that the ruling party’s principal aim is to somehow keep up this fight, which is a non-existent fight: to show that they are protecting Hungarian people from immigration, and that they are punishing the hostile agents that want to help immigrants enter Hungary. This is huge bullshit, of course. It’s the central part of the government’s rhetoric: that they’re stopping immigration and protecting the Hungarian people from immigrants. And this legislation is part of that rhetorical campaign to show this, to demonize NGOs, demonize people who are fighting for human rights, or who are fighting for a better asylum procedure.
Is there any political opposition against the new legislation proposed by the Hungarian government, or against this anti-migrant rhetoric in general?
No, unfortunately there is no strong opposition to these. Of course, some NGOs issued a couple of press releases and statements. The Hungarian Helsinki Committee issued a press release stating that this is a law that wants to criminalize people that want to assist the most vulnerable people on Earth. Amnesty International had another press release, and United Nations Higher Commissioner for the Refugees had a press release asking the government to repeal the proposal. Of course, the opposition parties issued some press releases, but you cannot call these a strong or organized political opposition. In the Parliament now, the government has the necessary majority to adopt this law, so they adopted it.
How about the attitudes among the Hungarian society? Is there a significant group of people who buy into the rhetoric propagated by the current government?
I think that in many respects the majority of the population is agreeing with the government on these topics. The topic of migration was very smartly chosen by the government because a lot of problems that people face in their everyday life can be somehow projected onto the migration issue.
So people’s frustrations related to poverty, material insecurity, lack of jobs, or existential insecurity can somehow be channeled into this kind of anti-migrant rhetoric. The government plays into a sentiment present among the Hungarian society, which is something like: “we are poor enough so we don’t need more people that require money and assistance. Rather than giving the money and assistance to immigrants and refugees, we should give assistance to Hungarian people who are poor themselves.” This is what explains the success behind that anti-migrant rhetoric.
You also mentioned that a number of international organizations reported their concerns over the new law. Does what they say can have any effect on what the Hungarian government does?
Not really. The EU could have some kind of leverage, but the EU is very reluctant to take measures against the Hungarian government. International NGOs have no effect or power on the government. There is a theory in the Hungarian media that the government made the new proposal less strict due to the pressures coming from the EU. People believe that these two provisions that I mentioned earlier, the mandatory registration in the Ministry of Interior and the 25% tax for donations from abroad were the most problematic parts of the bill. The government, not wanting to receive negative opinions from the Venice Commission, or from Brussels, took out these two most problematic parts to save the rest. The rest of the bill remains there because they want to show that they are tough and they take steps against these horrible NGOs.