US President Donald Trump has claimed immigrants are “flooding” into Europe as he hailed Hungary’s far-right Viktor Orban. Mr Trump made the comments while hosting the Hungarian Prime Minister at the White House in an apparent bid by Mr Orban to broker another summit between the US and Russia on the conflict in Ukraine. “If you look at [Mr Orban’s] stance on immigration and other things, you know, if you look at Europe, they made tremendous mistakes in immigration,” the US President said. “It’s really hurting them very badly. He has not made a mistake on immigration.

“They have people flooding Europe all over the place and it’s hurting it. The crime rates are way up, bad things are happening.” Hungary has refused to follow the orders of the European Court of Justice on admitting immigrants and has been forced to pay fines as a result.

Under existing legislation, those who cross Hungary’s borders cannot afterwards submit requests for asylum, but can only do so from an embassy outside the country.

Hungary has taken a hardline approach to migrants from outside the EU since 2015, when over a million people entered the country while fleeing war in Syria. Authorities built border fences and attempted to push back those crossing the border.

The two leaders opened their meeting with a series of complimentary remarks about one another, with Mr Trump praising Mr Orban for “running a great country” and pledging to discuss “trade, the Russia-Ukraine conflict [and] energy prices”.

Mr Orban, who is a long-time Trump ally, also criticised the president’s predecessor Joe Biden, suggesting that his tenure in the White House had “ruined” the relationship between the US and Hungary.

It was widely speculated before the meeting that the nationalist leader would seek a waiver on US sanctions on the purchase of Russian oil, with Mr Orban admitting his country is dependent on Moscow’s oil and gas, telling the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that without the supplies, “energy prices will skyrocket, causing shortages in our reserves”.

Questioned if he would be willing to give Hungary an exemption on the Russian oil sanctions, Mr Trump said: “We’re looking at it, because it’s very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas. As you know, they don’t have … the advantage of having sea.”

The US President also said he had agreed with Mr Orban that the war in Ukraine must end soon. Asked why he didn’t meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest last month, he said: “The basic dispute is they just don’t want to stop yet. And I think they will, I think it’s taking a big toll on Russia.”