In a rebuke to the European Union’s multiculturalist-minded open-border policy, Hungary is clamping down on immigration and protecting its borders against the influx of Muslim migrants pouring into the country from Islamic countries such as Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
The country is already working on recruiting “border hunters,” tasked with the duty of protecting the border from potential infiltration. These paid guards will be equipped with pistols, live ammo, handcuffs, batons, pepper spray, protective kits, riot gear, night vision goggles, and other tools designed to effectively monitor the influx of migrants 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Hungary hopes to recruit approximately 3,000 new guards to help alleviate the burden initially placed on 10,000 police officers.
According to the BBC, “The recruits will have six months’ training, they must be over 18, physically fit and must pass a psychological test, police officer Zsolt Pozsgai told Hungarian state television. Monthly pay will be 150,000 forint (£406; $542) for the first two months, then 220,300 forint.”
The decision to recruit “border hunters” comes as the country’s populist right-wing government, led by outspoken Prime Minister Viktor Orban, seeks to loosen the EU’s grip on sovereign member states. Bureaucrats in Brussels have been pushing for Hungary to adopt a more inclusive policy on migrants, demanding that the Eastern European state accept 1,300 more refugees.
But in an unusually low turn-out vote on the EU plan, the Hungarian public rejected Brussels’ demand this week, signaling a symbolic victory for the Orban government. By law, however, the referendum will not hold as the rules require at least 50% of the population to vote.
Top image (Getty Images): Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban (C) and Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borisov (R) tour the area where a fence was erected on the Bulgaria-Turkey border near the town of Lesovo, on September 14, 2016.