Over 100 Hungarians seek asylum in Sweden

Some 122 Hungarians, most of them Roma, have applied for political asylum in Sweden over the last four weeks. Kossuth Rádió reported at midnight that another 40 are on their way to Sweden.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Viktor Polgár told Magyar Hírlap that Swedish authorities informed Hungary last week that many of its citizens had applied for jobs and asylum. The ministry understands that they flew to Sweden on a budget flight from Baranya county.

Polgár said "as Sweden is a fellow EU member state, there is little chance of their applications being accepted and they will most likely be deported."

Swedish Immigration and Refugee Affairs Office spokeswoman Maria Andersson said "we find it unusual that citizens of another EU member country have applied for asylum."

The Swedish ministry said rumours had spread that asylum seekers would receive large sums of money upon arrival to the Scandinavian country, but this does not apply to EU members. Roma living in very poor conditions left for Sweden as they see no prospects here in Hungary, Magyar Nemzet comments.

The above story is just one of more than two dozen published today by Hungary Around the Clock, the most comprehensive source of daily English-language news about Hungary. For a free trial of HATC, click here. Hungarian news sources include Népszabadság; Magyar Hírlap; Világgazdaság; Napi Gazdaság; Magyar Nemzet; Népszava; Kossuth Rádió news and Hungarian television's nightly news broadcast.

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