Talks on the United Nations’ global migration package – “Hungary’s security stays top priority”

Hungary and its citizens’ security continues to be the Hungarian government’s “number one priority”, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in New York on Friday.

During talks on the United Nations‘ global migration package, Szijjártó said that

Hungary has recently seen “what illegal migration is like, when crowds of people cross the country to reach better-off western Europe”.

“The events have proved that border protection is a very important responsibility,” he added.

The Hungarian government disagrees with the final draft of the package, because it sees it as “one with the rights of migrants at its centre”, Szijjártó said, and insisted that “focus should also be given to the rights of those that want to live in peace and security in their own homelands”.

Seeing previous drafts of the document, Hungary had mulled leaving the negotiations before, Szijjártó said, but then stayed because “we believe in dialogue based on mutual respect and trust”. The final version, however, still contains points the Hungarian government cannot agree with, he said.