Orbán cabinet: EU-Africa deal should help repatriate migrants

Hungary will only support an agreement between the European Union and Africa that provides an effective mechanism for repatriating migrants and helps Africa retain its population, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told MTI in Brussels on Monday.

Following a meeting with his EU counterparts, Szijjártó said the meeting had shown that “pro-migration forces are again in full swing”.

Referring to discussions at the meeting on the 2000 ACP-EU agreement, Szijjártó said that “it is clear that the African side and several EU members, together with the European Commission, seek to amend that deal with components promoting migration, highlighting its positive effects”.

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Hungary believes Africa should be supported in a way that allows the continent’s rapidly growing population to prosper in their homelands, so that setting off for Europe is not their only option, the minister said.

Hungary will not support the document if it includes any references to the UN’s global migration and asylum compacts, he said, insisting that those documents were “still stealthily being forced” into international law.