Orbán: EU’s borders must be protected – Bild interview

The European Union’s borders must be protected in a way that nobody should be either accepted or allowed to enter the continent, the Hungarian prime minister told German Bild Zeitung in an interview published online.

“Every single migrant who has been rescued must return to Africa. This is the only way to prevent a great number of deaths occurring at sea,” Viktor Orbán told the paper.

Establishing a migration policy should not be a common matter for the EU as a bloc; it should remain a national competence for each individual member state, he said.

Orbán said the responsibility rested primarily with those who decide to make the journey to Europe, adding that European politicians who give migrants the hope that it is worth leaving their homes were also to blame.

“If we want to save lives we must stop people at the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea to prevent them from setting off on their hopeless journey,” he said.

He noted three key measures Hungary had put in place to tackle illegal migration over the past three years. These include protecting the country’s borders along with the EU’s external borders, providing help to people in need in their home countries and allowing every member state the sovereign decision of whether or not to take in migrants, he said.