Close to one thousand people gathered in Budapest on Tuesday to protest against an anti-migrant fence, currently being built by Hungary, along its border with Serbia. The fence is aimed at preventing increasing numbers of migrants, most of whom are refugees, from entering Hungary from the south. Around 80,000 migrants and refugees have reached the country so far this year.
The rally began at the city’s biggest church, Saint Stephen’s Basilica, and ended at the parliament building, where protesters demolished a mock fence mirroring the one being put up along the border. The actual fence is anticipated to be 175km long and 4m high.
The Hungarian government says that it is “protecting” the European Union and its own country. However, protesters say that the fence is “immoral” and that the people the government is trying to keep out are “fleeing from situations that are absolutely horrible”. Most of the ‘migrants’ are refugees arriving from countries like Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. While the majority ultimately move on to other parts of Europe, under EU law, those countries are meant to return illegal migrants to the first country within the EU where they arrived, i.e. Hungary.
Amy Rodgers, an activist at MigSzol, an organisation that helps refugees and migrants in Hungary said, “[I]n the middle of the biggest refugee crisis in recorded history, this government has somehow managed to make it sound like they are the ones with the problem.” She added, “[I]n order for this continent to start looking a bit more humane we need many, many things. The one thing we definitely don't need is a fence.”