Szijjártó: Government supports Austrian minister’s migration proposal

Budapest, June 11 (MTI) – The Hungarian government supports Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz’s proposal that migrants should not be allowed to enter Europe until it can be determined that they are eligible for asylum, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Friday.

Szijjártó said it had recently become clear that it is very hard to send migrants back to their countries of origin even if it is proven that they had entered Europe illegally.

The minister noted that setting up hotspots outside the European Union for registering migrants is a key part of the ten-point “Schengen 2.0” action plan put forward by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in April. There it can be clearly determined who is eligible for entering the EU.

Szijjártó said Hungary is prepared to cooperate with Austria on this plan, adding that it will be an important item on the agenda when Kurz visits Hungary on June 23.

He said that over the past year more and more European politicians had expressed the same stance as Hungary on the migrant crisis, a view for which Szijjártó said “we had been criticised for more than a year”. “A year ago, the term ‘border protection’ was a dirty word, but now everyone is talking about it as if they had been for it the whole time,” Szijjártó said.

As time goes by, it becomes evident “that the European Commission’s proposals are bad for Europe and will lead to its downfall,” he said. But there are some proposals, like the one put forward by the Austrian foreign minister, that move Europe closer to resolving the crisis, Szijjártó added.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters