After referendum, Hungary recruits "border hunters" to keep out illegal immigrants

Yesterday we previewed the referendum in Hungary where President Viktor Orban sought a consensus from the public on EU mandated resettlement of Syrian immigrants in their nation. The technicality we discussed came to pass and less than 50% of the eligible voters turned out, so the results are not considered official. Still, the president has made no secret of his disdain for such mandates from the European Union and his concerns over a potential flood of Islamic settlers. With that in mind, the results of the vote are clearly not going to be slowing him down. No sooner was the referendum concluded than the government announced a new program designed to recruit border enforcement personnel who would keep out unauthorized visitors. (Fox News)

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Hungary is recruiting thousands of so-called “border hunters” to patrol its razor-wire boundary fence, planning to equip the special unit with night-vision goggles, riot gear and dogs in an effort to keep migrants at bay, The Washington Post reported.

The nation is hoping to attract 3,000 border hunters to support the 10,000 police officers and soldiers already trying to keep migrants – many of whom have come from war-torn Middle Eastern countries such as Syria and Iraq – at bay in Serbia, the BBC reported. Hungary hopes to have the hunters in place by May. Recruits must be 18 and pass a psychological test. They will be trained for six months before going on duty.

“Hungary does not need a single migrant for the economy to work or the population to sustain itself or for the country to have a future,” Prime Minister Viktor Orban said. “Every single migrant poses a public security and terror risk.”

That may sound like some brutally blunt language but it’s nothing new for Orban. Throughout this period where he has railed against the European Union and the immigration policies of Angela Merkel (among others) he has been sounding the alarm while maintaining high approval ratings among his people. To get the full flavor of what’s going on here I invite you to view a speech (described in the local press as “historic”) which President Orban gave back in March. The video is below, but here’s a portion of the introductory remarks.

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Today, Europe is as fragile, weak and sickly as a flower being eaten away by a hidden worm. Ladies and gentlemen, Europe is not free because freedom begins with speaking the truth. Today in Europe it is forbidden to speak the truth. Even if it is made of silk, a muzzle is a muzzle. It is forbidden to say that those arriving are not refugees, but that Europe is threatened by migration. It is forbidden to say that tens of millions are ready to set out in our direction. It is forbidden to say that immigration brings crime and terror to our countries. It is forbidden to point out that the masses arriving from other civilizations endanger our way of life, our culture, our customs and our Christian traditions. It is forbidden to point out that those who arrived here earlier have already built up their own new, separate world for themselves with its own laws and ideals, which is forcing apart the thousand year old structure of Europe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbINrdyAXlE

The president is a powerful speaker and he’s frequently interrupted for bouts of applause from the audience. And as you can tell from his address he’s not pulling any punches. He doesn’t see the flood of people coming from the war torn lands of ISIS as an opportunity, but as a threat to the character and structure of their society. You can expect the left in Europe to try to tear down Orban for being a xenophobe or what have you, but thus far he’s got the people on his side and the EU is too weak to really do anything about it.

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