Changing the criminal code with the aim of punishing migrants for crossing the border illegally is in breach of international laws, Szabó said.

The opposition LMP party said the government has “no idea” of how to handle the migrant crisis, and LMP refuses to support the amendments put forward. András Schiffer, head of the party’s parliamentary group, said humanitarian and security considerations cannot be played off against each other; both must be ensured.

“The EU’s Islamisation”, as Antal Rogán, leader of the Fidesz group, put it, will not be stopped by keeping masses of arriving migrants in inhumane conditions at railway stations, Schiffer said.

Együtt also criticised the tabled bills. Szabolcs Szabó, a lawmaker for the party who sits as an independent, said that the government was using communication tools to solve the problem in vain.

“Maybe they can win the 2018 election this way, but the country will bleed.”

The Liberals said the government should work on finding a joint European solution instead of “going rogue”. The leftist opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) leader, Ferenc Gyurcsány, said the amendments were “incomprehensible” and its rhetoric “redolent of the 1940s”.

He said he supports the EU motion for a migrant quota whereby Hungary would receive “a few hundred or thousand” refugees.

“Meanwhile the government should also govern,” he said, adding that Hungary’s contributions to international aid efforts should also be increased. Lawmakers voted to discuss four of the 13 tabled amendments today and the rest on Friday, but a vote will be held off until next week.

Besides the issue of the deployment of the army and making illegal border entry a crime, the bills also call for setting up transit zones along the Serbian border and sealed off from Hungary as well as calling on European Union leaders to protect the continent and its citizens.

Source www.hungarymatters.hu - Visit Hungary Matters to sign-up for MTI’s twice-daily newsletter.