Fidesz: Brussels failing to focus on stopping migration

The central focus of the way Brussels continues to handle migration is managing instead of stopping it by protecting the external borders, Bence Rétvári, state secretary at the interior ministry, told Hungarian journalists in Brussels on Thursday.

Speaking after an EU meeting of interior ministers, Rétvári said “Brussels is still forcing through what has not worked so far”.

According to Rétvári, the EU “is working to cement” details of the EU’s Migration Pact adopted in December by passing nine regulations, including a rule on distributing illegal migrants across member states according to mandatory quotas. States that refuse to accommodate migrants would be fined, he added. Under another rule, 28.3 percent of all the asylum applications should be dealt with in Hungary, which would lead to the emergence of “migrant ghettos” at the Hungarian border, he said.

“It has been confirmed in Brussels that … they want to drive further into the one-way street the EU entered in 2015,” he said. “The EU is on the wrong path; they should instead be protecting the external borders and the European continent,” Rétvári said.