Ottawa has launched an unprecedented billboard campaign in the Hungarian city of Miskolc , home of many Roma refugees, trumpeting Canada’s rapid expulsion of failed asylum seekers.

Since last week, the Canadian government has erected six billboards in Hungary’s fourth largest city, proclaiming: “Those people who make a claim without sound reasons will be processed faster and removed faster.”

The $3,000 ad campaign, another attempt to curb the inflow of Roma refugees to Canada, has already created uproar among the Roma community here and there.

In media interviews, Miskolc Mayor Akos Kriza, a member of the governing conservative FIDESZ party, said he was outraged, not because of the billboards’ unwelcoming tone, but because Canada is expecting his city to take back the failed refugees.

“Canada cannot send anyone back to Miskolc,” Akos was quoted in one Hungarian news article. “I will not yield on this point!”

Aladar Horvath, founder of the Civil Liberties Foundation in Hungary, said the campaign will provide further ammunition for ultraright conservatives to justify their racist attacks on the Roma.

“This is unfortunate,” Horvath told the Star from Budapest. “People are angry, disappointed and sad because Canada shows the same discrimination like Hungary.”

Miskolc, where 40 per cent of Canada’s Hungarian asylum claims originate, is one of two Hungarian cities Immigration Minister Jason Kenney visited in October, in advance of the new asylum system in December.

As part of the reforms, Hungary has been listed as a safe country and refugee claims from there are expedited without the right of appeal. For the past three years, the country has been the largest source of asylum claims for Canada.

The government has previously distributed flyers to discourage Roma from seeking asylum in Canada, but it has not used billboards before. There are currently no plans to expand the strategy beyond Hungary.

Other countries, including Spain and Australia, have launched ad campaigns to discourage asylum seekers, though the ads have typically targeted boat migrants.

The government said the campaign is to raise awareness of Canada’s new asylum system and to deter abuse. It is part of a broader public education outreach through the use of Internet tools, web banners and a pop-up message that appears on targeted users’ computer screens.

“Virtually all Hungarian asylum claims are abandoned or withdrawn by the claimants themselves, or determined to be unfounded by the independent Immigration and Refugee Board,” said Kenney’s spokesperson Alexis Pavlich.

“Canadians have no tolerance for those who abuse our system and seek to take unfair advantage of our country at great expense to taxpayers.”

Gina Csanyi-Robah of Toronto’s Roma Community Centre said “political interference” into the asylum system must end.

“This is another insult for the Roma community,” said Csanyi-Robah. “The Canadian government should just allow the due process to play itself out.”

Gyula Gulyas fled to Canada in 2010 after he and his father were allegedly threatened and attacked by the FIDESZ party members to cast votes for the conservatives in the election.

“This is going to lead to more public discrimination by local Hungarians against the Roma because they know we have no place to go, not even to Canada. Nobody wants us or protects us,” said the Miskolc native.

Janet Dench of the Canadian Council for Refugees did not object to government campaigns to disseminate policy information, but said the government’s messaging has minimized the disturbing rise of racial hatred and xenophobia in Hungary.

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“Our concern is over the failure of the government to fully recognize the rights violations in Hungary,” Dench said.

In 2012, as of September, Canada received 1,511 refugee claims from Hungary, granted asylum in 232 cases and rejected 1,668. One hundred and sixteen claims were abandoned by the claimants and 1,233 were withdrawn.