BUDAPEST, Hungary — The United Nations refugee agency said Friday it was worried about “growing expressions of xenophobia in Hungary” and about government efforts to portray refugees as a threat to the country. Montserrat Feixas Vihe, the UNHCR’s regional representative for Central Europe, said concerns included “the way the government increasingly vilifies people who have fled from war, ones like Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been advocating extremely restrictive immigration policies and is sending out a questionnaire on migration issues to Hungarians that links migration with terrorism and contrasts support for migrants with that for Hungarian families. In his introduction to the survey, Orban says Hungary won’t allow “subsistence migrants to threaten” the jobs and living standards of Hungarians.
