People smugglers will be expelled from the country

Brussels punishes Hungary if its prisons are overcrowded, but it refuses to contribute to the country's border control expenditures, the costs of detaining people smugglers or constructing prisons, said Bence Retvari, parliamentary state secretary at the interior ministry. This is why the government had to extend the reintegration detention, according to which people smugglers who have been expelled by a final court decision must leave the country within 72 hours. Mr Retvari said that each convicted people smuggler costs Hungarian taxpayers almost five million forints (120 thousand euros) on average.

Budapest, 2023. május 24. Rétvári Bence, a Belügyminisztérium parlamenti államtitkára (j) sajtótájékoztatót tart az új pedagógus életpályatörvény-tervezetének a parlamenti pártok képviselőivel folytatott egyeztetéséről a minisztériumban 2023. május 24-én. Mellette Maruzsa Zoltán köznevelésért felelős államtitkár. MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd Fotó: Koszticsák Szilárd

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg expressed concern over the measure and summoned the Hungarian ambassador to his office. The Hungarian government had made a „sovereign Hungarian decision not directed against any neighbouring country” in particular, Peter Szijjarto said at a press briefing held during a break at the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council meeting, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Cover: Bence Rétvári, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior (j) holds a press conference on the consultation of the new draft law on teachers' careers with the representatives of the parliamentary parties at the Ministry on 24 May 2023. Next to him is Zoltán Maruzsa, State Secretary for Education (Photo: MTI/Szilárd Koszticsák)