Transit zones suspend entry for asylum seekers

A left-wing commentator finds the government’s coronavirus emergency plans wanting. A pro-government columnist welcomes the government’s decision to temporarily suspend entry to two Transit Zones on the Hungary-Serbia border, as one of a series of measures to reduce the risk of coronavirus entering the country.

In Népszava, Rudolf Ungváry accuses the government of not being proactive enough in its preparations for a potential coronavirus emergency. The liberal writer scorns the government for not providing GPs with face masks, and the breathing apparatus that severe coronavirus patients may need if an epidemic erupts. Ungváry adds that opposition parties also have no specific plans for handling a possible pandemic crisis. The best way to prevent large scale panic would be to keep people informed and work out clear protocols to handle all eventualities, Ungváry concludes.

Magyar Nemzet’s László Szőcs welcomes the government’s decision to temporarily stop new entries to the transit zones on Hungary’s southern border, as he suggests the new migrant wave from Turkey also increases the coronavirus threat. The pro-government commentator claims that another huge migration crisis would deepen the economic and social implications of the coronavirus threat, and would create a situation in which even civil war could not be ruled out. Szőcs goes so far as to suggest that anyone who fails to grasp that illegal migration needs to be stopped is a threat to social peace.

Tags: coronavirus, health, migration