HHC: OPERATION STARVE & STRANGLE: HOW THE GOVERNMENT USES THE LAW TO REPRESS HUNGARY’S CIVIC SPIRIT

The bills cast helping a person seeking asylum in Hungary as a threat to national security. The bills cover groups working on migration and asylum in almost any capacity, including those that provide funding, monitor treatment of refugees, press for change, inform or advise asylum seekers or in any way use foreign funds.

Organizations carrying out activities in the field of migration will have to apply for a license from the Interior Minister to continue performing their work The licensing process would include a full tax investigation and security clearance by three civilian and military security services. Failure to apply for a license would trigger legal proceedings against the organisation that could ultimately result in dissolution by a court. If the minister would refuse the license, the organisation would not have an effective court remedy to challenge the decision and would need put their activities on hold for a year until they could reapply for the license.

Second, licensed groups would be required to pay 25 % tax on any foreign funding or face a fine of 50 % of their foreign funding.

Third, the proposal would give the Interior Minister authority to impose a ban, on national security grounds, on the movement of both Hungarian and foreign nationals involved in refugee assistance in border areas. Foreign nationals could be excluded from the entire territory of Hungary on these grounds.