The border protection fence is the guarantee of Hungary’s security, and a symbol of the fight against illegal immigration, the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister said at a press conference held on Monday at the Tompa border crossing station.
Csaba Dömötör stressed that the fence is also a symbol of the fact that it is possible to defend our communities and our culture.
He highlighted that the Hungarian people had stated their opinion on immigration on several occasions in the past few years. Their will points in a single direction: they want strong border protection.
He said the government regards this opinion as its guiding principle, and this is why it decided to erect the border protection fence in 2015. The border fence has been in place ever since, and serves as an important means for protecting Hungary, he added.
He also pointed out that had the border fence not been erected, Hungary would continue to lie on a main migration route, and similar to 2015, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants would enter the territory of the country. As a result, Hungary would be completely defenceless against the consequences of illegal immigration.
We see the protection of our borders as an evident duty, but regrettably not everyone shares this view, he stated. He highlighted that in light of the various Brussels viewpoints, plans and legislative proposals we may conclude that there are still some dangerous processes under way. They are making every effort to create legal immigration routes, and continue to concentrate on the distribution of migrants, the mandatory quota system, instead of the heightened protection of our borders. The threat levelled by the Belgian Prime Minister last week stands as proof of this as well, he added.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said at the weekend they want to implement the proposals related to the resettlement quotas at any cost, and would start the resettlement of migrants already in the summer if it was up to them, the Parliamentary State Secretary recalled.
Mr Dömötör stressed that, regrettably, the border fence is also attacked by the Hungarian opposition. They try to deny this in vain: if they had the chance, they would dismantle it immediately. Some would because they see a kind of opportunity in immigration, others because they would surrender to the pressure exerted from abroad, he said.
The Parliamentary State Secretary stated that, with the dismantling of the border fence, the opinions of millions of Hungarian people would be disregarded, and the results achieved in the past few years would also be jeopardised. Therefore the existence of the fence will be a major issue of the upcoming elections. He said: “We would like to make it clear that as long as this government is in office and as long as the Prime Minister is called Viktor Orbán, the fence will stand”.
In answer to a question, he said that Hungary had not taken in a single immigrant or a single “quota migrant”. Anyone who claims otherwise seeks to start a “provocation campaign”. The very people who do so are the ones who previously denied the existence of illegal immigration and the quotas, later voted for them in Brussels, and would – if they had the chance – dismantle the border fence immediately, he said.
(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)
