(AP) Hungary’s anti-immigration government is prepared to provide free one-way tickets to Brussels for migrants and asylum seekers attempting to enter the European Union, a minister said Thursday in response to hefty fines recently imposed on the country over its restrictive asylum policies.
Speaking at a news conference in Budapest, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, criticized a June ruling by the European Court of Justice that ordered Hungary to pay a fine of 200 million euros ($216 million) for persistently breaking the bloc’s asylum rules, and an additional 1 million euros per day until it brings its policies into line with EU law.
“Brussels wants to force us at any cost to let migrants in,” Gulyás said, referring to the EU’s headquarters in Belgium.
