The essence of the Stop Soros legislative package is to make the organisation of illegal migration a punishable offence, similar to the act of inducing anyone, to this end, to abuse the laws of Hungary, Károly Kontrát, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Interior said on Tuesday in Parliament.
The Parliamentary State Secretary said Hungary and its government are being attacked today because they are in the way of the Soros plan, the implementation of which is becoming “ever more urgent for our opponents”. During the period ahead we will have to fight the mandatory quotas planned by Brussels, and we will also have to prepare for the fact that millions are about to move to Europe from Africa and the Middle East.
Hungary and Christian culture must be protected from illegal migration, Mr Kontrát said. He highlighted that the technical, live force and legal border closure mechanism built by the government has protected Hungary so far, but in the future we will need even more protection.
Mr Kontrát said with the amendment of the Penal Code they will seek to introduce a new factual scenario under criminal law, meaning that it will be possible to take effective and successful action against the organisation of illegal immigration. He stressed the goal is to punish organisational activities.
They would seek to punish organisational activities which are capable of enabling people coming from countries where they are not exposed to a direct threat to institute asylum proceedings. Such organisational activities may also be aimed at helping people entering the country illegally to acquire grounds for residence, he pointed out.
Mr Kontrát highlighted that if a person also assists illegal immigration with financial means or is engaged in such activities on a regular basis, it will qualify as an aggravating circumstance. The organisation of the monitoring of the border, the preparation and distribution of information materials and the building of networks will qualify in particular as organisational activities. Assisting illegal immigration as a criminal offence would be punishable by imprisonment, and anyone perpetrating such an act may be banned from within an eight-kilometre zone of the border, the Parliamentary State Secretary said.
He added that as in Hungary border controls fall within the competence of the police, they will propose the supplementing of the police law to add powers relating to the prevention of illegal immigration.
They would introduce the institution of border protection restraining order, meaning that those accused of certain criminal acts related to immigration – for instance, people smuggling or damaging of the border fence – will not be allowed to approach the state border and will be required to remain 8 kilometres outside the state border.
According to Mr Kontrát, with the introduction of these new police measures the police will be able to meet their obligation of protecting the state border which is laid down in the Fundamental Law.
The bill stipulates that anyone who violates their obligation arising from a border protection restraining order commits an offence.
They would allow the police to process the details of the accused in the event of the commission of the above-mentioned criminal offences, thereby bridging the period while these details are being uploaded into the criminal records system.
Mr Kontrát said that the fundamental rules regarding the submission of the residence applications in Hungary of foreigners who do not have the right of free movement are laid down in a cardinal law. It was therefore necessary to provide for the entry and residence of third-country nationals in the spirit of cardinal legislation.
An application for asylum must be rejected if the applicant arrived in Hungary via a country where he or she was not in direct danger, the Parliamentary State Secretary said.