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Brussels refugee fine plan

May 17th, 2016

Two columnists point out that Hungary may have to pay stellar penalties for rejecting compulsory migrant relocation quotas, if the European Commission gets its way in the European Parliament and the European Council.

Index wonders what Hungary will do if it has to pay 250,000 Euro for rejecting each asylum-seeker allocated to the country. The author who signs with the pseudonym EUROLOGUS admits that after the complete failure of the EU migration framework based on a small numbers of arrivals, Brussels had to think of alternatives. With more than one million migrants already in western Europe, it is unrealistic to consider the Dublin Agreement still valid, under which asylum seekers can be sent back to the country where they first entered the Schengen zone. Index contends that if the proposal is passed, Hungary would be better off admitting the 1,290 migrants allocated so far, rather than paying a horrendous fee. The author finds it unlikely that the proposal will be approved by the European Parliament, however, as it has been harshly criticized by several countries including Hungary.

In Magyar Idők, István Kovács suspects that the EU-Turkey migrant pact will soon collapse and the flow of migrants will resume. The pro-government analyst finds it very unlikely that the EU will eventually grant Turkish citizens visa free travel. As soon as President Erdogan realizes that he has no chance to succeed, he will not hold back migrants any longer, Kovács believes. As for the EU’s proposal, Kovács points out that the 250,000 Euros Hungary should pay for each rejected migrant amounts to the total salary an average Hungarian earns in his lifetime. According to Kovács’s calculation, Hungary could be allocated as many as 18,000 migrants if the EU’s prediction is right and 1.5 million new asylum seekers arrive in Europe in 2016. Rejecting that many refugees would cost Hungary 4.5 per cent of its GDP – the amount it spends on education, Kovács remarks. In conclusion, he hopes that the proposal will not be passed by the European Parliament.

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