The Hungarian government will take every possible measure to stop immigrants from “taking over” the country, said government office chief János Lázár. Classifying illegal border-crossing as a criminal offence must be in line with EU law, added government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács.
The Hungarian government will move to change the country’s criminal code to make illegal migration a criminal offense rather than a misdemeanour, the government office chief said. The motion will be put to parliament in the autumn, János Lázár told a regular government news briefing. Hungary’s borders are still open at legal entry points, he said. The 4-metre-high temporary border fence built on the southern border will be completed by the end of November, he added. The government will take every possible measure to stop immigrants from “taking over” the country. Hungary’s government regards Serbia, Greece and Macedonia as “safe countries”, and migrants will be returned to those places if they are sent back to Hungary from Germany or Austria, he said.
Government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács said that crossing the border illegally had originally been treated as a criminal offence, but that in recent years – partly due to harmonisation of national law with EU law, and partly in line with the “spirit of the times” – it had been downgraded to an infraction. He emphasised that no country in the world would accept people crossing its borders “as any individual sees fit”. The government’s stance is that, apart from making legislation on immigration stricter, there is also a need to redefine the relevant passages of the Criminal Code, Kovács explained. At the same time he emphasised that this change must be in line with EU law.
