Hungary Passes Tax Against Support for Mass Migration

(AP) — Hungarian lawmakers have approved a 25 percent tax on financial or material support for groups promoting migration.

The special tax embodies the anti-migrant policies of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who says that the mass entry into Europe by mainly Muslim migrants threatens the continent’s Christian culture.

The bill, passed Friday as part of wider changes to Hungary’s tax laws, says revenues from the new tax can be used only on border defense.

According to the bill, the promotion of migration includes media campaigns, seminars and “propaganda activities presenting immigration in a positive light.”

Revenues from the special tax are meant to offset state expenditures resulting from increased migration, supposedly caused by the aid groups’ activities.

Amnesty International said the new levy is a punitive tax on organizations “which think and say differently from the government on migration.”