Szijjarto: V4 agree to help patrol Hungary border

Luxembourg, October 8 (MTI) – The Visegrad Four countries have agreed that the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland will help patrol Hungary’s southern border, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, said in Luxembourg on Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of conference on migration and the western Balkans route, Szijjarto argued that the migrant crisis is a global problem in need of a global solution. The minister criticised “several European leaders” who, he said, only talk about the importance of protecting the EU’s external borders but do not take any action to ensure it.

He said the EU was late in addressing the migration situation on the western Balkans route, adding that it would have been better prepared to handle the crisis had it noticed the problem earlier.

“All of Hungary’s warnings were in vain, as the EU chose to focus on the Mediterranean instead,” Szijjarto said, adding that there is still no solution in place for the western Balkans route.

Szijjarto said the EU is having to bear the heaviest burdens of the migrant crisis, which he said would increase for three reasons: the fight against the Islamic State militant group remains ineffective, as do efforts to stabilise the Middle East and north Africa, and because the western Balkan states are unable to stop the wave of migrants. The minister added, however, that the western Balkan states should not even be expected to be able to stop the migrants if the EU cannot either.