Border securityPut pig heads on Hungary’s border fences to deter Muslim refugees from entering country: Hungarian politician

Published 29 August 2016

A Hungarian MEP (member of the European Parliament) last week proposed placing pigs’ heads on Hungary’s border fences to deter Muslim refugees from entering the Hungary. Earlier this summer the Hungarian government instructed the country’s security forces to make scarecrows and place them along the border to scare refugees from crossing the border. It was in response to criticism over the scarecrow tactic that Gyorgy Schopflin, the MEP representing the center-right European Peoples’ Party in the European Parliament, tweeted: “Human images are haram… pig’s head would deter more effectively.” Of 177,135 asylum applicants to Hungary in 2015, only 146 were approved.

A Hungarian MEP (member of the European Parliament) last week proposed placing pigs’ heads on Hungary’s border fences to deter Muslim refugees from entering the Hungary.

The country’s right-wing, populist government of Victor Orban has been criticized by European leaders and human rights organizations for its harsh attitude – and demeaning language — toward refugees. Orban, saying that Muslim refugees threaten Europe’s “Christian nature,” ordered Hungary border police to build a system of fences and other obstacles along the border to stop refugees from entering the country.

The Washington Post reports that one indication of the Hungarian government’s attitude toward the refugees was its instructions to the country’s security forces to make scarecrows and place them along the border to scare refugees from crossing the border.

The Telegraph reports that it was in response to criticism over the scarecrow tactic, that Gyorgy Schopflin, the MEP representing the center-right European Peoples’ Party — a parliamentary grouping of which Orban’s ruling Fidesz, or Hungarian Civic Alliance, is a member — tweeted: “Human images are haram… pig’s head would deter more effectively.”

The Twitter account is listed on the official Web site of the European parliament as Schopflin’s account.

Human rights organizations reacted with anger. Andrew Stroehlein from Human Rights Watch, tweeted: “Your words are disgusting. I would expect that from anonymous neo-Nazi trolls but you’re an MEP. Act like one.”

Schopflin complained that criticisms of his pig head suggestion were “beginning to resemble hate speech,” and refused to apologize.

The increasingly populist tone of the Hungarian government has raised concern in Europe. Orban’s government has been openly criticized by European leaders for introducing measures which undermine Hungarian democracy; rewriting history to minimize Hungary’s role in collaborating with the Nazis in the mass killing of Hungarian Jews; and for openly expressing admiration for Vladimir Putin and support for his policies.

To many, Hungary’s harsh attitude toward the refugees, and its refusal to admit its fair share of asylum seekers, are but the latest example of a country moving away from Western values, adopting 1930s-era ethno-nationalist policies instead.

Of 177,135 asylum applicants to Hungary in 2015, only 146 were approved, according to government statistics.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has staunchly defended the country’s position on refugees, citing his goal “to keep Europe Christian” and announcing: “We are experiencing the end of a spiritual-intellectual era. The era of liberalism. [This] provides the opportunity for the national-Christian thinking to regain its dominance not only in Hungary, but in the whole of Europe.”