Subscribe to our social channels to get the latest news about Hungary!
Orbán cabinet: Migration pressure at southern border ‘has increased significantly’
Change language:
Migration pressure at Hungary’s southern border has increased significantly, a government official told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday.
The government had taken the necessary measures, Károly Kontrát, parliamentary state secretary at the interior ministry, said in the briefing to the national defence and law enforcement committee. It has strengthened the protection of the southern border and extended the national state of emergency due to mass migration to Sept. 7.
He said the European Union had so far failed to respond adequately to the migration crisis, though at the last meeting of EU interior ministers, it was agreed that protecting the external borders should be a priority, he added.
The announcement by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey would no longer hold back migrants put even greater pressure on the Hungarian borders, he said.
Tamás Menczer, a state secretary of the foreign ministry, said
political “pro-migration forces”, including NGOs, had “not gone away”.
He also said that European security now depended on the Turkish president. He said the Hungarian government supported all agreements and ceasefires aimed at ending the armed conflict in Syria to ensure that migrants in Turkey do not head for Europe. An additional two million people in Syria could, if the situation escalated further, head for Turkey.