Hungary to hold referendum on EU migrant plan

Hungary will hold a referendum on October 2 on whether to accept mandatory EU quotas for relocating migrants, Hungarian President Janos Ader has said.

Emboldened by Britain's shock vote to quit the European Union, Prime Minister Viktor Orban is forging ahead with his referendum on migration, after taking an anti-immigrant stance since the migration crisis escalated last year.

The country's right-wing government opposes a plan to relocate an extra 120,000 refugees across the bloc.

Last year, Orban’s government erected a razor-wire fence on the country's southern border with Serbia and Croatia to keep out migrants. It criminalised illegal entry in an effort to curb the influx.

The referendum on Oct. 2 will ask Hungarians whether they would accept any permanent EU migrant quota system beyond that.

President Janes Ader said in a statement posted on his office's website that the vote will be about the following question: "Do you want the European Union to be entitled to prescribe the mandatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary without the consent of parliament?"

The EU migrant relocation scheme was established last year after more than a million people entered the bloc, most intending to settle in Germany and other rich northern countries.