Orbán cabinet demands EU money for border protection against illegal migrants
The European Union should deploy member states’ resources to protect the bloc’s external borders, but it is failing in doing so and has even imposed a daily fine on Hungary “for protecting its external borders”, Bence Rétvári, a state secretary at the interior ministry, said in Brussels on Wednesday.
Border protection is essential
Rétvári told a press conference after a meeting of EU interior ministers that the EU received 981,000 asylum requests in 2024, second highest after 2016, when some 1 million were registered. This year, the number of requests may reach 1.1 million, he insisted. “Pro-migration forces plan to have one million migrant arrive in Europe every year, while the negative effects of illegal migration are obvious,” Rétvári said.
Schengen Area falters
“Besides constant terror threat and increasingly frequent attacks, the Schengen Area is also faltering,” Rétvári said. While it is “in theory” based on the principle of free movement, an increasing number of countries including Italy, Germany, Sweden and France have so far introduced border checks, he said. That harms one of the EU’s fundamental goals, open borders, he said. “The situation is worse now than it was 5 years ago as internal borders are less and less open.”
Due to the EU’s inactivity, member states are increasingly taking the protection of external borders into their own hands, he said. Austrian, Czech and Slovak border guards have helped out on Hungary’s southern border in the past years, the state secretary added. Joint action was launched on the Turkish-Bulgarian border in 2024 with the participation of Bulgarian, Romanian, Austrian and Hungarian forces, and Croatian, Slovene and Italian authorities are cooperating to stop illegal migration on the Bosnian border, he said.
Four-nation cooperation in protecting Europe’s external border ‘exemplary’
The prime minister’s chief security advisor called the cooperation of Hungary, Austria, Bulgaria and Romania aimed at protecting Europe’s external borders “exemplary” on Wednesday.
Speaking to public news channel M1, György Bakondi commented on the deployment of an international unit to the Bulgarian-Turkish border. He said the cooperation “sets an example to Europe”, as Hungarian, Austrian, Romanian and Bulgarian police officers and border guards are jointly protecting Europe’s external borders.
Bakondi noted a surge in the number of migrants at the Hungarian-Serbian border with a “return of people smugglers” to that route. “Last spring, 575 illegal migrants had been detained compared with 3,140 during the same period this year.”
He said the protective wall erected by Turkiye at its border with Syria and Iran and the ongoing construction of another wall at the Greek border would ensure that those seeking to enter Europe could be “vetted”.
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In Belgium there were 39.615 asylum applications in 2024!This is an increase of 12% compared to 2023!The budget of Fedasiel,this is the government agency that handles the applications,was 838 063 376 euros in 2023!No budget figures are yet known for 2024!We owe this to the left- green liberal government that promotes Belgium as this one of milk and honey!After their regularisation,they get access to health care,child allowance,living wage and all kinds of other benefits!The total deb omt of Belgium is 645 billion euro!The left- green liberal government made a debt of more than 30 billion euro in four years!The tax burden in Belgium is 55%,the highest in Europe!This means that when you earn 100 euros,you give 55 euros back to the state!