Hungarian prime minister shares his advice on how Britain could end small-boat immigration
Britain must treat Channel migrants as criminals to stop small boat crossings, Hungary’s prime minister has said.
Viktor Orbán stated determination had been the secret to cutting migration as dramatically as his country has appeared to have done.
Mr Orbán’s tough anti-migrant policies have driven down asylum claims in Hungary to a few dozen each year, leading to clashes with the European Union (EU) about the legality of the measures used.
He told GB News: “If you decide that you stop them, stop them. It’s sometimes not the nicest job, but if you decide that this is our borderline and nobody can cross it without our permission, you have to keep the line.
“In Hungary, it’s very simple. If somebody is crossing the border line without getting permission from the authorities, it’s a crime and we treat them as crime makers […] you can’t be half tough, you know. Yes or no? There is no between.”
Hungary has fences on its frontiers with Serbia and Croatia, and there have been allegations of people being pushed back violently.
The European Court of Justice has fined the country hundreds of millions of euros for breaking asylum rules. An EU court ruling banned Hungary from holding migrants in converted shipping containers near border fences in 2020.
Mr Orbán’s government then introduced rules forcing asylum seekers to apply at Hungarian embassies in non-EU countries rather than at the border.
In 2025, 41,472 migrants crossed the Channel to Britain in small boats provided by people smugglers – almost 5,000 more than in 2024 and the highest number for three years.
More than 100,000 people claimed asylum in the UK last year. In contrast, there were 47 claims reported by Hungary in the first half of 2025. Hungary has a much smaller population, at less than 10 million, against almost 70 million in the UK.
But Mr Orbán said he was not brave enough to criticise Sir Keir Starmer for failing to stop the boats, but claimed Muslim migration risked undermining Christian culture in Europe. He said: “We think the … mixture of various civilisations in one territory can create a lot of difficulties and high risk.”
Mr Orbán, the longest-serving leader of an EU country, said the Iran war risked causing an increase in migration to Europe and warned Donald Trump, the US president, against sending in ground troops.
The Hungarian prime minister is hoping for his fifth election win in a row on April 12, but is trailing in the polls. There have been reports that Russia is trying to influence the vote in his favour.
His campaign paints the EU and Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, as plotting to drag Hungary into the war in Ukraine, with the help of Péter Magyar, Hungary’s opposition leader. Mr Magyar has accused Mr Orbán of corruption and economic mismanagement.
