Foreigners, migration to blame for virus spread: Hungary PM

Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban said yesterday that foreigners and migration are to blame for the appearance and spread of coronavirus in Hungary.

Asked during a radio interview why Hungary has closed its universities but not schools in response to the virus outbreak, Orban said it was because "there are lots of foreigners there".

"Our experience is that primarily foreigners brought in the disease, and that it is spreading among foreigners," he said.

So far, Hungary has confirmed 19 cases of infections, nine of them Iranians (mostly university scholarship-holders), one British national, and the rest Hungarians.

"It's no coincidence that the virus first showed up among Iranians," he said.

"We cannot separate the tens of thousands of foreign students (in Hungary) from the Hungarian students, that's why we thought it best to stop all visits to those institutions," he said.

In Hungarian-language messages posted on its Facebook page the government has warned Iranians of detention and deportation if they don't cooperate with disease control authorities.