“We should not be talking about the readmittance of foreign fighters who joined the Islamic State, but about their punishment”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Tuesday in summary of his speech at a UN Security Council debate in New York.

“The world and Europe are facing new challenges following the defeat of the world’s most dangerous terrorist organisation to date, the Islamic State, which is fundamentally the result of the fact that tens of thousands of so-called foreign fighters have joined the Islamic State in recent years”, the Minister highlighted, adding: “Unfortunately, over five thousand of them are citizens of European Union countries”. “We are shocked to see the questions coming from various international organisations concerning the fact that these foreign fighters should be readmitted to European societies”, he stated. “In contrast, these foreign fighters must be punished and imprisoned at the location where they committed their crimes”, he declared.

“These people joined a terrorist organisation, within the framework of which they have embittered the lives of millions of people, taken part in murders, and spread extremist ideologies”, Mr. Szijjártó explained. “We should not be talking about the readmittance of these people”, he declared. The Minister said that in his opinion the Islamic State is attempting to return these foreign fighters to Europe, “which represents and extremely serious security risk to us”. “With the increasing migration pressure along the Western Balkan migration route, we must count on these foreign fighters who previously joined the terrorist organisation and now want to return to Europe ‘with who knows what intent’, cropping up among the crowds of migrants”, he added. “This must be prevented, and accordingly Europe’s external borders must be reinforced”, he emphasised. “Naturally, Hungary will continue to protect its southern border in future to prevent foreign fighters from returning to Europe”, he stated. “The approach of international organisations is astonishing; it is incomprehensible when we need to talk about pardoning criminals who have joined a terrorist organisation instead of about their strict punishment”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister added.

(MTI)