‘There is an international campaign against Hungary’

Tear gas, water cannon and riot police.

These migrants refuse to cooperate with Hungarian authorities, they don't want take their fingerprints, photographs; sometimes they attack police, they refuse to go to refugee camps to get supplies of food, water and medication; they invade railway stations and motorways.

by Peter Szijjarto, Hungarian foreign minister

For refugees risking everything to make it to Europe, the reception could not be any clearer – they are not welcome in Hungary.

Hungary’s rightwing government has earned the scorn of the international community for attacking refugees demanding entry from Serbia.

Thousands of terrified men, women and children have been stationed at the Serbian border after Prime Minister Viktor Orban introduced tough new laws to keep them out. 

Having received around 150,000 refugees this year, many of whom use Hungary as a stop-gap as they head further west, Orban has called the influx of refugees a threat to Europe’s ‘Christian identity.’

While other governments in Europe have taken a very different approach, Germany and Austria, which were earlier hailed for their treatment of refugees, are now also implementing some border controls.

But with close to 500 million people in the European Union, are non-European refugees really a threat to the continent’s identity? And what about international law that says every nation must help refugees from war zones fleeing for their lives?

Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s foreign minister, talks to Al Jazeera about his government’s handling of the refugee crisis.

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