Migrant crisis: Hungary MPs to vote on EU quota

The vote comes in response to an EU-set migrant quota agreed in 2015 which would relocate 160,000 migrants across the bloc.

Hungary would receive 1,294 migrants.

Last month, Hungarians voted to reject EU quotas in a referendum vote, but a low turnout rendered it invalid.

Of those who voted, 98% supported Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban's call to block the quotas. But only 40.4% of voters cast valid ballots, short of the required 50% threshold.

BBC Europe editor Katya Adler said the referendum was both a defeat and a victory for Mr Orban, who has campaigned relentlessly against migrants.

Although he declared victory in the referendum, he had failed to convince the majority of the country to vote.

Mr Orban has justified the parliamentary vote on the grounds that 3.3 million Hungarians voted to reject the EU's migrant quotas.

The outcome of Tuesday's vote is uncertain.

The BBC's Nick Thorpe in Hungary says Fidesz, Mr Orban's party, are two seats short of the two-thirds majority needed to amend the constitution.

For Tuesday's vote to succeed Mr Orban must gain support from several members of the far-right opposition party Jobbik.

However Jobbik also wants the government to scrap a separate policy giving residency to wealthy foreigners and their families if they buy a special state bond for €300,000 ($330,000).

"We are ready to vote for the amendment of the constitution but we are not ready for partial solutions. We can only support a solution which creates Hungary's real security," Jobbik President Gabor Vona said in October.

Nearly 3,000 government bonds have been sold resulting in more than 7,500 people gaining residence permits, AP news agency reported.

Jobbik says more people have come into the country under that scheme than would have come under the EU migrant quota.

(BBC)