Hungary must act against immigrant quotas: official

The Hungarian government needs to take action against a mandatory immigrant quota system, the governing Fidesz party's new parliamentary group leader, Lajos Kosa, said on Monday.

Addressing a press conference here, he told the cabinet to do everything in its power to thwart the European quota system approved by a qualified European Union (EU) majority on Sept. 22. The Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary voted against it.

Kosa called for a European Citizens' Initiative, which is a legislative proposal submitted to the European Commission that must be signed by at least one million European Union citizens from at least seven of the member states, as well as an appeal to the Luxemburg-based European Court of Justice.

Slovakia has already indicated that it plans to appeal the decision through the court.

Under the quota decision the EU plans to admit 120,000 refugees who would be shared among the member states, to which Hungary is vehemently opposed.

Kosa argued that no one had authorized the EU to deny its members their right to determine who can live within its national borders.

He also objected to the numbers, saying that the EU decision concerned only 120,000 people whereas so far this year more than 300,000 migrants had entered Hungary alone.

Kosa called the quota "nothing about nothing, albeit a very dangerous move because the migrants and the international criminal organizations organizing the people smuggling are treating it as an open invitation."

Hungary's position is that the EU needs to protect its borders and seek a political solution at the root of the problem, he added.

On Sunday alone 5,925 asylum-seekers crossed into Hungary, mainly from Croatia. This year 312,111 migrants had entered Hungary, and 176,168 of them had applied for asylum since January. Enditem