Hungary rejects UN declaration on granting illegal migrants equal access to health care

Hungary refuses to recognise the passages of a United Nations declaration on universal health care saying that illegal migrants in UN member states should have the same access to health care as taxpaying citizens, the foreign minister said in New York on Monday.

Addressing a plenary session of the UN General Assembly on universal health care, Péter Szijjártó said there were “numerous ongoing attempts” to gradually incorporate the Global Compact for Migration into international law. He accused the UN of trying to “hide” the chapters of the compact in decisions which the organisation could later refer back to.

The declaration on universal health care is one such attempt, Szijjártó said, insisting that the United Nations was trying to force its member states to provide equal health-care access to everyone irrespective of legal status.

This means that an illegal migrant would be entitled to the same level of health care as those who have been honest taxpayers for decades, Szijjártó said.

“This is unacceptable for Hungary,” the minister said.

For one thing, the government rejects the idea that the UN should impose any sort of directives or legal obligations in connection with the Hungarian health-care system, he said. Health care is a national competency on which only Hungary has the right to make any decisions, Szijjártó argued. Second,

the government rejects the proposal that illegal migrants should in any respect have access to the same level of health care as Hungarian taxpayers, he said, adding that Hungary refuses to discriminate against its own citizens.

Source: mti