Foreign minister in UN: Migration must be ‘stopped rather than managed’

If the world can prevent situations in which people are forced to flee their homes, conditions can be established whereby migration can be stopped altogether, Hungary’s foreign minister told a UN Security Council debate on peacekeeping in New York on Thursday.

Peacekeeping an important means to cope with the global challenge of migration, the foreign ministry cited Péter Szijjártó as saying in a ministerial-level debate on the topic of women in peacekeeping. Whereas peacekeeping is one of the UN’s most important activities, the organisation needs to be reformed, the minister said, adding that the Hungarian government was ready to promote reform.

He noted the government’s recent decision to increase Hungary’s number of troops serving abroad from 1,000 to 1,200, adding that this would also enable the country to increase its number of troops in UN peacekeeping missions.