George Soros' Open Society Foundations is set to invest additional funds in the Central European University (CEU), the Hungarian-American billionaire wrote in an open letter.
“Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orbán has forced Central European University (CEU) to move its US degree courses to Vienna by making it impossible for CEU to issue American degrees in Budapest”, Soros wrote. "CEU is nevertheless determined to maintain both academic and public activities on its campus in Budapest and it has the full support of the Open Society Foundations and me personally in this endeavour...I, therefore, reiterate the commitment—made in June—that CEU has an assured future: the Open Society Foundations intend to increase CEU’s endowments".
The Central European University, a private, graduate-level institution founded by George Soros, halted its programmes for asylum seekers last August following the introduction of the so-called “Stop Soros Act”, which aims to suppress organisations and activity promoting immigration.
The bill, enacted last June, stipulates a 25-percent tax on non-government organisations involved in "programmes, actions and activities which directly or indirectly aim to promote immigration".
Anti-immigrant sentiment has run high in Hungary against the backdrop of the migrant crisis that hit Europe in 2015, with hundreds of thousands of people form the Middle East and North Africa seeking asylum in EU member states.
Even though most asylum seekers weren't looking to settle in Hungary, they crossed through Budapest and other major cities as they headed towards wealthier EU member states with more generous welfare packages and pro-immigrant governments.