BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium’s top migration official on Monday criticized Hungary for threatening to send a bus convoy of migrants to Brussels in retaliation against European Union policies and suggested they would be stopped at the border.
Hungary’s anti-immigrant government signaled Friday that it is serious about a plan to provide asylum-seekers free one-way travel to Brussels, a measure meant to pressure the European Commission into dropping heavy fines against the country for its restrictive asylum policies.
In June, the European Court of Justice 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 policies into line with EU law.
The commission, the EU’s powerful executive branch, has its headquarters in the Belgian capital.
Nicole de Moor, Belgium’s migration minister, said Hungary’s threat “undermines solidarity and cooperation within the Union. Belgium continues to advocate a joint, coordinated policy in which respect for European values and international obligations are central.”
In a statement, de Moor’s office said that Hungary’s going ahead with the convoy “would be a flagrant violation of European and international agreements. Belgium will therefore not provide access” to any such migrant arrivals.
De Moor has asked Belgium’s EU ambassador to speak to his Hungarian counterpart about the threat. She also wants the commission to take a firm stand against it.
The statement noted that the buses would have to “unlawfully cross the territory of other member states to arrive illegally in Belgium.”
They would have to cross either France or Germany – which along with Luxembourg and the Netherlands surround Belgium – and possibly transit other EU member countries like Austria, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia or the Czech Republic.
All are part Europe’s Schengen Area, a group of 29 countries, most of them EU nations, which people can move between without facing ID checks. However, Austria, France, Germany and Slovenia currently have checks in place due to concerns about security and migrant movements.
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