EU institutions’ approach to migration disappointing, says foreign minister in Luxembourg

Luxembourg, April 18 (MTI) – The attitude European Union institutions have had towards the migrant crisis has been disappointing, as even despite the obvious consequences of illegal migration, they keep trying to find ways to bring even more people to Europe, Hungary’s foreign minister said on Monday.

Péter Szijjártó told MTI on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg that it was time for the EU to do away with its current migration policy and stop “sending invitations to migrants”, who risk their lives setting off on a journey to Europe.

The consequences of the so-called “pull factors” of migration are clear, Szijjártó said, citing a fresh report from the BBC which said hundreds of migrants were feared to have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while trying to cross from Egypt to Italy.

He said the EU’s primary concern should be finding a way to reduce the migration pressure on the bloc’s external borders and determining the measures national governments and the EU as a whole need to carry out to achieve this. Before amending the Dublin rules, the EU should strengthen the Schengen regulations and their enforcement.

Szijjártó said this was the aim of the ten-point action plan the Hungarian government put forward on Friday.

Under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s plan dubbed “Schengen 2.0”, if a Schengen Area member state is incapable of keeping to the Schengen rules, the EU border protection agency must intervene and take over that country’s border protection duties under an agreement. If, however, the sides fail to reach an agreement on the matter, the country’s Schengen membership could be suspended, said Szijjártó.

He reiterated that Hungary rejects any refugee quota-based proposals to resolve the crisis as well as the mentality that migration could be used to solve Europe’s demography and labour market issues.

On the subject of the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, which is also on the meeting’s agenda, Szijjártó said Hungary will propose that the European Commission put together a plan to provide aid to the country’s Kurdish region in the north that is home to more than 2 million internal refugees.

Responding to recent comments by UN High Commissioner For Refugees Filippo Grandi in which he said that Europe cannot respond to the refugee crisis by building border fences, Szijjártó said he disagreed with Grandi’s position. The migration wave can only be stopped by protecting borders, which has to be the first step, Szijjártó said.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters