Moreover, the move extends beyond merely capitalizing on foreign builders at the Debrecen BMW plant.

A thermal hotel in Hajdúszoboszló, situated near the town's main tourist attraction, the thermal bath, has been filled with foreign guest workers. The Aqua Blue Hotel has been operating at full capacity for months, housing 200-220 construction workers, including men from the Philippines, who have been contracted by a Turkish company to work on the Debrecen BMW factory construction site. Buses transport them daily to and from the worksite.

The arrival of these Southeast Asian workers in mid-2023, fueled by the megaprojects in Debrecen, has caused concern among the residents of Hajdú-Bihar County, including Hajdúszoboszló. This unease stems from years of governmental messages warning about the dangers migrants pose to jobs and public safety. In response, Mayor Gyula Czeglédi urged accommodation owners last July not to host these workers, transforming their properties into workers' lodging. To ensure public safety, the police chief also promised increased attention to newcomers. In autumn, the Hajdúszoboszló municipal council revisited the issue, demanding the government provide clear information on the situation with guest workers to reassure the public.

Amid this atmosphere of fear regarding foreigners, the government has tried to distinguish between guest workers and illegal immigrants, setting annual quotas for the former. However, the political issue remains unresolved. Jobbik’s parliamentary group leader, László György Lukács, made a point to broadcast live on Facebook, just meters away from Hotel Aqua Blue, how workers’ buses arrived in the city center on the eve of the national holiday, March 14, criticizing the government's economic policies and pointing out that the town was known for tourism and hospitality, not for the influx of workers in yellow vests who flood the town after working hours.

The owners of Aqua Blue seemingly foresaw the business opportunity in lodging these guest workers, as they had signed agreements to house them since last summer, despite the mayor's request and lacking an operational license at the time – a fact confirmed by the town hall. Initially, when querying why Aqua Blue was not listed among registered local accommodations by the municipality, we were directed to Gábor Morvai, the city clerk, who confirmed the absence of Aqua Blue Hotel from their records since its removal upon request on August 31, 2022.

The immigration office, upon inquiry, clarified that the licensing and accommodations of guest workers do not fall within their jurisdiction, leaving unresolved questions about the regulation of such arrangements.

Publicly, the Aqua Blue's website states it is "temporarily closed," without mentioning its current operation as a workers’ dormitory. The hotel is operated by HDC Property LLC, owned through Hudeco Plc by Ferenc Szabó, a leading figure and shareholder of the Duna Factor Debt Management and Financial Plc, known for purchasing debt packages from banks and specializing in financial investments and collections.

The Aqua Blue came under the stewardship of Duna Factor following a protracted liquidation process in 2021, initially acquiring disputed debt obligations from Takarékbank in March 2020, then purchasing the property from the liquidator at a reduced price by crediting the debt, and finally incorporating the asset into a project company, DF Hotel 2022 LLC, with Ferenc Szabó taking a directorial role.

Despite ongoing legal disputes by the hotel's founding family, the Vargas, who challenge the authenticity of documents foundational to the liquidation and claim they did not sign any such documents, with the family patriarch asserting he was in a critical condition in a hospital at the time of their creation. Meanwhile, the family, which developed and operated the hotel since the early 1990s, currently resides in the upper floors of the now deteriorated and worker-occupied hotel.

The hotel originally opened in 1991, expanding over time to feature 40 rooms, 22 apartments, and three pools, until a foreclosure procedure was initiated against Easy Living Ltd., the family's company, in 2016.

The utilization of the property appears to extend beyond accommodation services, venturing into Duna Factor's principal operation of handling financial transactions, as it provided state-supported enterprise loans to four small companies that had ostensibly purchased individual hotel apartments on the same day, with the property estimated at a significantly higher market value than the liquidator's sale price.

Selected inquiry attempts to Ferenc Szabó for comments on the operation as a worker dormitory and related financial maneuvers have gone unanswered.