European Borderland

(THE ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED IN DANISH ON SEPTEMBER 30TH 2021 IN FØLJETON. THIS IS A TRANSLATION. ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE. PRESS PHOTOGRAPHY BY ME)

“I’m sorry, but I’m a bit tired today. I was up all night hunting migrants!“ Lászlo Toroczkai sends me a sincere smile and welcomes me into his mayor’s office in the Hungarian border town of Ássothalom. Do I want coffee? Tea? It’s the least he can do, having made me wait an hour, while his meeting dragged out, he says.

“You’ve been “hunting migrants“? That’s a strong expression, are you sure, that’s the one you want to use?“ I ask, but Toroczkai doesn’t take notice, and instead pulls out his phone. His YouTube-channel has close to 90.000 subscribers, and they’ve already gotten a taste of the video he recorded during last night’s so-called hunt. It will premiere the following Sunday. He extends his phone to me, and a fast-paced, percussion driven track flows from the small loudspeakers, while a torch on the screen illuminates five men dressed in army clothing. Some of them are carrying arms. “It looks like a movie trailer,“ I say. “An action movie!“ the broad-shouldered man with the buzz cut adds with what can only be interpreted as child-like enthusiasm.

Lászlo Toroczkai is even by Hungarian standards a controversial figure. He’s a former member of the radical nationalist party, Jobbik, a political party that has labels of antisemitism and neo- nazism attached to them. In 2018, however, Jobbik excluded Toroczkai – on the grounds of being too extreme. As a reaction, he founded Mi Hazánk (the Our Homeland Movement) and kept his mayoral duties in the city of Ássothalom, where meetings drag out during the day and migrants are being hunted at night.

When the migration crisis hit its peak in 2015, Toroczkai alongside Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán put Ássothalom on the map. Refugees coming from mainly Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq sought refuge at the borders of Europe and Hungary responded by erecting a guarded fence along the Hungarian/Serbian border. This sent the country on a political collision course with the EU. Toroczkai claims that the fence was his idea and back then, he one-upped Orbáns hardliner image by releasing YouTube-videos where he in his usual actionmovie-like manner discouraged refugees from setting foot in Hungary – least of all in Ássothalom.

When Toroczkai speaks of the summer of 2015, he describes it as chaotic. He says erecting the fence was necessary in order to protect the about 4.000 inhabitants of Ássothalom from what he describes as “economical migrants, criminal young men and potential terrorists.“ Had they been actual war refugees, he says, they would have been content staying in the first safe country, they arrived at: “If you’re a refugee, the nearest peaceful country is obliged to offer asylum, og when you’re from Afghanistan, that country is Pakistan. This is important because people from Afghanistan has a completely different culture than people from Europe. I think you understand that,“ he says, gesticulating at my (blond) hair.

“There’s a big difference. In Pakistan they wouldn’t create as much conflict as in Europe, because they have a similar culture, religion and in some cases language. But the ones who come here are economic migrants.“

The EU has said that they will finance border control in the form of equipment and cameras, but what they won’t finance is a fence, because they don’t believe in the erection of fences. What do you think about that?

“It’s much better when the police can hunt the migrants, the criminals.“

What does it mean to hunt?

“They’re criminals. They will hunt innocent people, they will rape, they will commit acts of terror, so I think [stopping them] is better, so they can’t perform terrorist attacks like the ones we saw in Paris. This, I think, is hunting.“

We’re talking about two different kinds of hunting now?

“But it’s not the same, because we just catch them. We don’t beat them, we don’t rape them, we don’t shoot them.“

So what do you do to them?

“Nothing! They have to go back to Serbia. We just hand them over to the police and then they have to go back.“

But that would be a “pushback“ and that’s illegal under EU law.

“Illegal? What they do is illegal. Crossing the fence without documents is not legal.“

Illegal pushbacks

For a politician to admit participating in illegal pushbacks in an EU-country can seem absurd. In May, The Guardian, along with several other media outlets, did extensive reporting on illegal pushbacks taking place in several EU-countries such as Greece, Malta, Italy and Croatia, but where Mr. Torozckai seems to take pride in such activities, those EU-countries as well as the European border agency Frontex did everything in their power to disprove the accusations.

In Hungary, they follow a different strategy. Here, the pushbacks are a poorly hidden reality, with the number of migrant pushbacks being monitored and published for the world to see. Even after the EU Court of Justice in December 2020 ruled that Hungary’s treatment of refugees and migrants was illegal, violent and disproportionate to the pressure Hungary allegedly was under, they continued their procedure.

As a result, Frontex – who themselves are under scrutiny for participation in unlawful and violent handling of refugees and migrants – suspended their presence at the Hungarian border in January 2021. The official explanation being that they couldn’t risk being complicit in Hungary’s illegal procedures.

Fort Hungary

Back in Ássothalom I’m invited to go see the border. Toroczkai calls on one of his so-called ‘field guards’ og tells me that Ássothalom in supplement to national military presence has their own special troup, that patrols not the border but the border country. I recognize the man waiting by his truck from Toroczkai’s YouTube-video. The rifle, thrown casually across the back seat, I recognize too.

Sandor, as my border escort is called, would never dream of using it, however. Except in emergency situations. His role is primarily to protect the agriculture of the county, he tells me, while we make our way towards the border. But he does have opinions on what is “going on in the West“ he explains via a translator:

“I see where this ends. I see what has happened in western society, and what it leads to. And they can then say that I’m a racist or that I’m not humane, it doesn’t matter. I just see what has happened in the West after the big wave of migration. And those countries are realizing that we are right.“
What is it you see happening?
“The real problem is when [migration] in a way ruins society. When no-go zones form in larger cities, where you are afraid to go, and when anti-Christianity arises and Christian churches are being burned to the ground. Don’t get me wrong, I know it’s just a small part of their culture, I know I’m talking about a minority, but it’s still part of their culture. I actually think that colorfulness and diversity is a good thing, but we have to defend our culture. Their culture is also valuable. But they should keep it in their home country.“

[No-go zones is a conspiracy theory that states that there are places in Europe and in the United States where Sharia law reigns and where civilians and authorities are banned from entering, red.]

Sándor is a bear-like man dressed in camouflage clothing and a bulletproof vest. He’s got a big beard, round cheeks and he makes an effort to create and uphold eye contact, even while driving. A lot of what he’s saying sounds like a less structured repetition of Toroczkai’s words and he responds to my questions by agreeing with them as if they were rebuttals and not questions. But he also talks about last night’s “hunt“ with an enthusiasm that’s unique to him.

Approaching the border, we pass by little neat farms wrapped in barbed wire. Finally, Sándor turns a corner and we ride down a narrow, bumpy road. Along the 175km long Serbian border, the 13 feet tall fence towers above us. During its lifetime it’s been fortified several times over with wire, iron lattice and finally with electricity. In 2017 Orbán ignited the Hungarian-European strife further by asking the EU to pay for half the cost of the fence, which amounted to 400 mio. euros. A request they firmly refused.

“The EU is just sitting on their high horse. In the end, Hungary will prove them wrong. History will reveal that we knew how to handle the refugee crisis,“ Sándor says. With the stories of Frontex’ participation in pushbacks, their creation of a united border- and coastal patrol, which approaching 2027 will count 10.000 guards and whispers of a new Fort Europa, he might end up being right.

Even though Josep Borrell, who’s a High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, has refused the idea that the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan should create a refugee crisis similar to the one in 2015, they are preparing to stop refugees down by the border. “Aren’t you afraid about them coming to Europe with their view on women?“ Sándor asks me. A bit confused, I answer that I don’t think the people fleeing the Taliban support that view on women either. He accepts the argument but goes on to say that this is not the case for the people arriving at their borders: These people are criminals. Potential terrorists.

The sun is pounding and Sándor is waving at the border police as he turns the car to drive me back to Ássothalom. I thank him for his time and he thanks me profoundly fo taking the time to talk to him: “Most journalists just portray me as inhumane or a nazi.“ I nod and tell him that I won’t. Through our conversation a human being has emerged, who started out in the field patrol collecting garbage and later advanced. Who listens and asks follow up-questions, who has a heavy metal song as his ringing tone when his wife calls and who concludes their conversations with a ”puszi puszi“ – kiss kiss. But at night he escorts his mayor as they go out “hunting“ migrants down by the border to Serbia. And how do you then portray him? /Asta Kongsted