Foreign minister slams statement on migration endorsed at EU-Africa conference

Hungary on Wednesday refused to endorse a statement on migration adopted at a Euro-African ministerial conference in Marrakesh, the foreign minister said, calling the document “an extremely pro-migration statement that goes against Hungary’s interests”.

The so-called Rabat Process launched over a decade ago has “strayed from its original path”, Péter Szijjártó told MTI by phone from Marrakesh after taking part in the Fifth Euro-African Ministerial Conference on Migration and Development.

The original goal of the Rabat Process was to stop the flow of migrants from Africa to Europe through the sensible use of European funds, the minister argued.

Szijjártó said the document endorsed at the conference was an “extremely pro-migration declaration” that sought to “further inspire migration” and create new migration routes instead of focusing on how migration can be stopped altogether.

“This statement is completely against the interests of Hungary and Europe,” Szijjártó said, adding that Wednesday’s debate in Marrakesh was another one in a line of international debates “signalling an alarming process”. The minister said that in the debates on migration, the views of the African countries were becoming more and more dominant, while the European countries were giving up their own interests.

Szijjártó said the African countries in question saw migration as the engine of economic growth, the foundation of global prosperity and a process that should be managed and organised rather than stopped.

He said European countries, too, had started to adopt this position, giving up the interests of their citizens and ignoring the security risks of migration.

“We will not be complicit in this and will firmly challenge the European intention to change the composition of the continent’s population,” Szijjártó said. The minister added that Europe’s endorsement of migration constituted “selling out the continent’s culture and security”, which he said Hungary would not support.

Szijjártó called on European institutions not to commit to any decisions regarding migration until next year’s European parliamentary elections, arguing that doing so would be “deeply anti-democratic”. The European people need to be granted the right to decide for themselves what they think about the future of the continent, he said.

Feaured image: MTI

Source: MTI