Hungarian official says pigs’ heads would scare migrants

In an effort to keep them away, the country’s administration has constructed a large border fence adorned with scarecrows made of carved sugar beets made to look like rotting human heads.

A member of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party is facing backlash after he suggested the country’s southern border fence should be lined with pigs’ heads to deter Muslim refugees. “Human images are haram … pig’s head would deter more effectively”, he tweeted. Human images are haram (forbidden).

MEP Gyorgy Schopflin made the comment during a Twitter spat with Andrew Stroehlein, the European media director for Human Rights Watch, after he publicly criticized Hungarians for using homemade scarecrows to frighten refugees along the border of neighboring Serbia.

In a follow-up tweet, Stroehlein said: “Pig heads an ugly idea”. Slamming the vegetable heads carved to look like faces, Stroehlein blasted Hungary’s refusal to welcome illegal migrants, writing: “Refugees are fleeing war & torture, Hungary”.

With the latest Twitter battle and Schopflin apparent lack of remorse over the incendiary comment, it appears right-wing Hungarian lawmakers are eager to double down on their anti-immigration agenda.

“I did not humiliate anyone”, Schopflin said.

In March of previous year, the Hungarian government declared a state of emergency in the country due to Europe’s refugee crisis and deployed an additional 1,500 security personnel to the country’s Serbian frontier in a bid to deny refugees entry.

177,235 asylum applicants applied to Hungary in 2015, of which only 146 were approved, the Daily Mail reported, citing Hungarian government statistics. Refugees, including many children, had been beaten with batons, attacked by guard dogs and sprayed by tear gas. AP material published by LongIsland.com, is done so with explicit permission. This includes the preparation of derivative works of, or the incorporation of such content into other works. Please see our terms of service for more information.