Migrant flow halted
October 22nd, 2015As the flow of illegal migrants arriving in Hungary has almost stopped since the ‘green border’ was sealed last weekend (25 were registered on Tuesday), newspapers continue their ‘dialogue of the deaf’— some dwelling on the human side of the crisis, while others concentrating on the limits of European endurance and tolerance.
In its front-page editorial, Népszabadság castigates the government for practically making it impossible for any asylum seeker to find refuge in Hungary and blames it for the plight of the migrants spending their nights in the open under United Nations High Commission for Refugees blankets somewhere in Croatia, as shown on the photo illustrating its lead article. The left-wing daily finds it particularly sad that neighbouring Croatia and Slovenia which used to be critical of Hungary’s reluctant attitude towards immigrants are now “playing ping-pong with human beings.” All solutions and doubts may well be put on the table, Népszabadság writes, but first and foremost, these people have to be saved.
In Magyar Hírlap, Ervin Nagy finds it obvious that by now European societies have grown largely hostile to the wave of immigration underway and politicians who treat it as a merely moral issue are losing ground, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany. He rejects the warning the Chancellor addressed to East European countries that they should reciprocate the solidarity they have been shown by the European Union (and host their share of refugees). He acknowledges that Hungary is a net beneficiary of EU subsidies, but argues that those are meant to compensate for the losses weaker parties incur in unequal competition. In fact, Hungary’s light industry has been bought up by multinationals over the past 25 years and most of those factories have been closed down by now.