Hungary plans to introduce 25% tax on aid groups supporting immigrants

The Hungarian government stepped up its anti-immigration measures on Thursday with plans to introduce a 25 percent special tax on aid groups which support migration, Reuters reports. “We want to use tax policy to step up against organizing migration,” the Finance Ministry said. After its election victory, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government submitted a bill to parliament aimed at criminalizing aid to migrants. The original version of the bill, submitted in February, included a 25 percent tax levied on NGOs whose funding comes mostly from foreign donors, but that clause was dropped. Now the Finance Ministry says it will reintroduce the proposed tax in a separate piece of legislation.