NGOs’ ‘promotion’ of migration a threat to internal security, says PM advisor

The activities of NGOs that promote migration “often by collaborating with human smuggling rings” pose a threat to internal security, the prime minister’s chief domestic security advisor said on Tuesday.

These organisations are reluctant to sign a code of conduct Italy has asked NGOs operating migrant rescue ships in the Mediterranean to sign, and are unwilling to abide by Hungarian laws, György Bakondi told public media.

Hungary, however, is of the view that the activities of NGOs aiding migrants must be transparent, he said.

Bakondi said that if the organisations in question adhered to the laws, authorities still would not be able to prevent them from pursuing their activities, “but at least they will be transparent, and this is very important”.

He said the recent developments concerning NGOs in Italy had reaffirmed the Hungarian government’s position that foreign-funded organisations “promoting migration” should not be allowed to keep their activities secret and must become transparent.

The activities and financial functioning of “pro-migration” NGOs “raise a lot of questions not just in the Mediterranean, but also in inner Europe, including Hungary”, Bakondi said.

If Brussels had listened to the Hungarian prime minister and the government’s proposals to strengthen border protection and that migrants’ asylum requests should be assessed outside the European Union’s borders, the bloc could have succeeded in curbing mass illegal migration long ago and could have prevented the thousands of deaths resulting from human smuggling, he added.

Source: MTI