Hungarian foreign minister: Migration and illegal border crossing are not human rights

Migration is not a human right and people do not have a fundamental right to cross borders illegally or arbitrarily select countries in which to settle, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said on Monday in Luxembourg.

Whenever the European Union takes steps on the issue of migration, it must take international law as its starting point, and this does not state that migration is a human right, the minister said.

In the break of a one-day meeting of EU and Eastern Partnership foreign ministers, Szijjártó told journalists that Hungary has made it clear that it is not taking part in the process of adopting the United Nations Global Compact for Migration. Other countries are likely to have joined Hungary’s stance by the end of the year, he added.

“The migration compact cannot be accepted since it poses a threat to the world and it goes against the interests of Europe,” he said.