Hungary to quit UN global migration compact approval process

Hungary is quitting the approval process of the United Nations Global Compact on Migration, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting.

“For us, the number one priority is Hungary and the security of Hungarians,” he told a press conference.

The document goes completely against the security interests of the country, he added.

The government’s position is that the UN Global Compact on Migration goes against common sense and efforts to restore security in Europe, he said.

He described it as “an extremist and biased” document which encourages migration.

It is based on the presumption that migration is an unavoidable phenomenon, he said. The Hungarian government rejects that presumption and considers migration as a “bad trend” that raises “extremely serious security risks”, the minister added.

Szijjártó said that “the majority of UN member states are a generator of migration trends” and insisted this was why the document described migration “as a fundamental human right”, which, he insisted, was in conflict with international law.

The document, he said, “overlooks the truly existing fundamental human right of other people who want nothing other than to live in peace and security in their own homeland”.

Concerning details of the compact, Szijjártó said that it would stipulate that every migrant is entitled to the same services as local citizens, would be provided with training and would have fast-track access to legal remedy against the decisions of local authorities.

During talks on the package “it was stressed all along that it would not be legally binding”. However, in the end it stipulates that each country should create a national programme of their own to implement the package, Szijjártó said.

Asked about reports that the European Commission is preparing to launch an infringement procedure against Hungary concerning its recent “Stop Soros” laws, Szijjártó said that Hungary was “protecting Europe’s interests against Brussels”.

He insisted that “Brussels’ migration policy” had put the bloc in danger and he said Europe had suffered 29 serious terrorist attacks in the past three and a half years, committed by “people with a migrant background”.

Concerning critical remarks by Rastislav Kacer, the outgoing Slovak ambassador to Hungary who has slammed hardline policies on migration, Szijjártó said it was “shocking” that the diplomat was “spreading lies”. He added that he would have taken “the necessary diplomatic steps” had he not been informed that Kacer was leaving the Slovak foreign ministry. “We have heard the opinion of a Slovak individual which we do not agree with,” he added.

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI