Camerawoman Apologizes for Tripping Fleeing Migrants, Criticizes Those Who Condemned Her

Camerawoman Apologizes for Kicking, Tripping Refugees.

Petra Laszlo was filmed kicking a child and tripping a father carrying his daughter, footage that quickly went viral and resulted in her being fired from right-wing news channel N1TV.

The New York Times reports that Hungarian paper Magyar Nemzet published her apology Thursday, in which Laszlo says she panicked. “I was scared as the crowd rushed toward me, and then something snapped in me,” she wrote. “I’m not a heartless, racist, children-kicking camerawoman.”

Hungarian police are currently investigating the incident. “I do not deserve the political witch hunts against me, nor the smears or often the death threats. I’m just a woman, and now an unemployed mother of small children, who made a bad decision in a situation of panic. I am truly sorry.” Laszlo’s actions seem cruel and inexplicable, but they reflect the xenophobic climate of Hungary and other parts of Europe, where millions of migrants from Afghanistan, Syria, Jordan, and elsewhere have been arriving with the hope of safe passage to places like Germany and the United Kingdom. In the past year alone, more than 170,000 refugees have flooded Hungary. While European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has called for more European Union countries to open their borders to refugees, Eastern European nations like Hungary and Slovakia remain unmoved.

Agencies/Canadajournal