Construction of suspected refugee camp in Hungary near the border with the Burgenland province caused Interior Minister Gerhard Karner to threaten to strengthen border controls, the Austrian news agency APA reported. “If necessary, border control with Hungary will be significantly tightened. I unequivocally communicated this to the Hungarian authorities as well, he said in a position quoted by the APA and BTA agencies.
“Illegal migration along the border between Burgenland and Hungary has decreased by 97%,”, Karner continued. “Migrant traffickers avoid Austria. In addition, 60 Austrian police officers were sent to Hungarian territory (to support in) dealing with the sewers.“
Just yesterday, the regional governor of Burgenland, Hans-Peter Doskocil, spoke about the alleged refugee camp. He established “state-organized illegal trafficking of migrants” and emphasized that the province “will defend itself with all the legal and political means at its disposal”. Doskocil repeated his call for increased monitoring of the green border and announced that he would send a letter to Hungary. In case the neighboring country sticks to its plans, the regional governor wants to prepare the closure of border crossings, possibly also by creating pedestrian zones, such as in Schattendorf.
The Green Party took a stand on the issue and attacked both Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Austrian Freedom Party (AFP) in particular. “According to our information, it has not been officially confirmed whether such a camp will actually be built. In any case, it is crucial for us to end the flow (of migrants) into Austria at the behest of Orbán. "Hungary and other known lawbreakers must finally take responsibility and play by the general rules of the game," a party spokesman wrote in a comment to APA. “Politicians like Orban and their petty nationalism threaten the prosperity and freedom of people in Europe. The fact that Orbán is an idol of (APS leader – note APA) Herbert Kickle speaks eloquently”.
In the newly formed European Parliament, Orbán's party "FIDES-Hungarian Civil Union" and the Austrian Freedom Party are members of the far-right political group "Patriots for Europe".
In recent weeks, Hungarian media have reported construction work on the site of a former vocational school near the western Hungarian village of Vitned. Until recently, families of refugees from Ukraine lived in a part of the former homestead “Termayor“. After they moved out, the area was fenced off and construction, renovation and furnishing work has been going on ever since. The media published photos showing that dozens of bunk beds had been placed in the gym. Witned is located in the western part of the district of Gyor Moshon Sopron, just a few kilometers from the border in Burgenland in the region of Seewinkel and Deutschkreuz.
In mid-September, the Hungarian government denied the establishment of a refugee camp. At the time, Tamas Menzer, the spokesman for FIDES, said that “there will never be a migrant camp anywhere in Hungary”. However, the case did not subside. Media reported that hundreds of local residents demonstrated near the site last Sunday.
„We will continue to demonstrate until we get an official and credible answer about the use of the warehouse,” the main organizer of the demonstration, non-party local politician Laszlo Remete, told APA. “People do not believe the assurances of Alpar Djoparos, the member of parliament from the ruling Fidesz party responsible for this constituency, that it is just a renovation.“
„We don't like the fact that they don't take us seriously, that they don't give us a reliable answer. We want to be informed about what exactly is being prepared here: why is there a huge radio tower, why is a three-meter wire fence built, why are the police guarding the site? It is worrying for local residents that they do not know if a migrant camp is really being built here or something else,”, stressed Remete.
In the summer, the Court of Justice of the European Union imposed on Hungary a fine of 200 million euros and a daily penalty of one million euros for each day of delay. The main issue was the effective access of asylum seekers to asylum procedures. The government of right-wing nationalist Orbán, however, has so far refused to make the payments. Instead, Orbán is asking for money from the EU to fund his migration policies - such as border fences and threatening to put asylum seekers on buses and send them to Brussels. The European Commission recently announced that it would deduct the fine from the EU payments that Hungary would receive. Some EU funding for Hungary has already been suspended from 2022 due to corruption allegations and rule of law concerns.
Source: www.bta.bg