Visas for Vietnamese in Hungary: A back door deal

A Hungarian court this week sent Aron Orbán, the brother of the elected Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, into custody for a month. The anti-corruption agency is investigating him and three other people for human trafficking.

They are said to have helped around a hundred Vietnamese get Hungarian work visas in 2024 with the help of political connections. They would have received a “recruitment commission” for this. According to reports, the Vietnamese only completed a two-day first aid course in Hungary before traveling on to other European countries on visas.

The news from Budapest caused sadness and heated discussions on Vietnamese-language Facebook pages. The Hungarian visa route is considered one of the most sought-after routes for illegal immigration to Europe. With such a visa you can stay in the entire EU for a short time, but can only work in Hungary.

Vietnamese warned each other not to buy work visas for Hungary anymore because it could become unsafe. After Great Britain, Germany is the most popular destination for onward migration from Hungary. If the number of smuggled Vietnamese people mentioned so far remains at around 100, Orbán will probably only be a small fish.

The taz spoke to several Vietnamese interpreters from Berlin who wished to remain anonymous. They reported that a Hungary visa in Vietnam costs between 10,000 and 13,000 euros. “I didn’t know the option where you only take a two-day first aid course in Hungary,” says an interpreter. “The rule is that people in Hungary have a fictitious employment relationship, have to pay social security contributions and regularly travel to Hungary to extend their visa.” In fact, they mostly stayed in Berlin and worked there.

In which sectors? “Mostly as a nanny in Vietnamese families across the city,” says one of the interpreters. There the risk of getting caught is lowest. “But there are also a lot of jobs around Herzbergstrasse in Lichtenberg”, i.e. around the street where the Asian wholesale market “Dong-Xuan-Center” is located. There, these people would work illegally in massage parlors, nail salons or in the catering industry.

Another interpreter reported that many Vietnamese with Hungarian visas come to him to have certificates from Vietnam translated. "Among these people there are certainly skilled workers who would have a chance of getting a work visa for Germany. But the recognition of the certificates takes an extremely long time, so they usually have to leave for Vietnam again before they can come back legally." In addition, the application must be submitted to the German Embassy in Budapest, which many people are not aware of.

Others came to him, the man continued, to have documents translated for applications for family reunification. This means that, after years of illegal work in Berlin, they want to marry someone who already lives in Germany, or they want to have a child with a man from Germany.

All interpreters with whom the taz spoke vehemently reject the idea that the phenomenon is human trafficking, as Hungarian investigators claim. "Everyone comes to Europe voluntarily, pays a lot of money for it. And you also know that you can't and don't want to stay in Hungary." Such a route via Slovakian visas would have worked until 2020. “But I haven’t come across such cases recently,” says an interpreter.

The Berlin police are also aware of the phenomenon of Vietnamese with Hungarian national visas who work illegally here, says spokesman Robert Iwastschenko. “However, quantification is not possible because the Berlin police do not make any statistical records on this.”

Hungary's elected leader Viktor Orbán spoke on Monday of a "dirty game" played by his successor against political opponents, whose actual target he was. "I am the target; my brother is just the tool," he explained.