Hungarian government: EU asylum agency would accelerate migration

The government opposes European Union plans to set up a new asylum agency because it would simplify and accelerate migration, the state secretary of the government office told public radio Kossuth on Sunday.

Csaba Dömötör said the new EU agency would be tasked with making asylum procedures quicker and more efficient, which would practically make migration easier. All of which goes against the government’s position, he added.

Borders must be protected and Europe must be able to stop illegal migrants before they cross the border. Help should be taken to the troubled areas instead of bringing people over to Europe and Hungary, he said.

Dömötör said it was no accident that Hungarian opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) MEP Péter Niedermüller has participated in the consultation talks on behalf of the EP. The problem with the new agency is not only that it would speed up migration but it would take away certain rights from member states. Hungary’s opposition parties are supporters of Brussels’ erroneous policies, Dömötör said. He cited Socialist prime ministerial candidate László Botka as saying that the border fences in the south would be taken down if they win next year’s elections.

Migration was the most important topic of the recently concluded “national consultation” survey in Hungary and it was “the umpteenth time” that Hungarian people expressed their wish not to receive illegal migrants and not to participate in the resettlement scheme. There is incredible pressure on Europe from the Mediterranean region and the European Commission keeps pressing for settlement schemes instead of aiming to strengthen the borders, Dömötör said. Hungary’s southern border seal has fulfilled expectations and the pressure of migration has eased but this situation can change at any moment. Analysts in Germany have estimated that around 6.6 million people are ready to set off for Europe, he added.

Dömötör said it was “especially odd” that the EC’s vice president recently compared illegal migrants to the Hungarian refugees of 1956. The 1956 refugees were genuinely running for their lives, they were not attacking police with stones and they were cooperating with the authorities upon arrival in western Europe. The same cannot be said about some part of the illegal migrants: there have been criminal reports filed over their actions, such as in the case of the riot at the Röszke border station, he concluded.

Photo: MTI/EPA/Ciro Fusco

Source: MTI