Hungary passes 'Stop Soros' law making it a crime to help migrants

Hungary’s parliament on Wednesday passed a controversial package of legislation making helping asylum seekers punishable with up to a year in prison.

The legislation swept through a lower house of parliament dominated by Fidesz, the country’s governing party, on Wednesday by 160 votes to 18 despite calls from the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe's human rights watchdog, for the vote to be delayed until it had submitted a review of the law.

Under the provisions of the new law, dubbed the "Stop Soros law", it becomes a criminal offence to carry out “organisational activities” that assist immigrants not entitled to protection with asylum requests, and to help people “residing illegally in Hungary” to get a residence permit.

The government of Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, campaigned on the theory that George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire financier, wants to flood Europe with Muslim immigrants.

The party was re-elected with a commanding two-thirds majority in April.

Critics of the "Stop Soros law" have branded it as vague and claim that organisations offering legal advice and charity to immigrants could fall foul of it.

They also argue that it represents a further attempt by the government to silence or eradicate NGOs that fail to conform to its nationalist policies and agenda.

Mr Orban has accused NGOs funded by Mr Soros of conspiring against the state and representing a threat to national security.

Vowing to defend "Christian Europe", he made the "Stop Soros" bill a flagship piece of legislation, and one of first to be passed by the new parliament.

The law also allows the authorities to ban people it believes are supporting illegal immigration from getting within eight kilometres of the border.

The parliament also approved a change to the Hungarian constitution that states that an “alien population” cannot be settled in Hungary.

The introduction of the law could propel the Hungarian government towards yet another bruising encounter with the EU.

Brussels and Budapest have clashed over Mr Orban’s steadfast refusal to accept refugees distributed around member states under a quota system.