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.

“It is shameful, and that is why we are disappointed in terms of the way the European Union represented, or rather failed to represent, Europe’s interests in negotiations on the UN migration package,” Szijjártó said.

Federica Mogherini, the EU’s high representative, had no basis for saying that economic migration is the right response to the demographic and economic challenges, he said.

“Hungary does not think in this way. It wants neither demographic nor labour market challenges to be resolved by migration, and this must be respected by everyone,” he said.

Hungary can give the right responses to these issues in the areas of education and family policy, and it reserves the right to make these decisions on its own,” minister added.

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI