According to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, the UN should not encourage migration, but should instead be playing a leading role in solving crises and assisting the African population to remain in place. In addition, it must support people who have been forced to leave their homes to enable them to return and live in safety, and must also help its member states to defend themselves from security risks.

The Minister spoke about this in his speech at the high-level general debate during the ongoing session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday, Central European time.

He declared that more waves of migration have set out for Europe since the UN adopted the Global Compact for Migration last year. “This represents a further security risk for all of the source countries of migration, for all countries through which migrants are travelling, and for those that they are attempting to reach”, Mr. Szijjártó declared.

“Hungary is doing what the UN should be doing: it is protecting its citizens and its borders, which are also Europe’s borders; the country can only be entered legally”, the Minister said. “The government is also expecting the UN to treat the illegal crossing of borders as a crime, and to refrain from attempting to portray non-governmental organisations as the legitimate representatives of various countries”, he added.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister also called on the United Nations to not depict migration as the best possible instrument for solving demographic and job market challenges. “Hungary, for instance, is attempting to solve these issues through supporting families and the continuous modernisation of its education system”, he pointed out.

“It would be expected of the UN and other international organisations that they uphold international legal regulations and assist people who conform to the law, not those who break it”, he declared. The Minister also underlined: “Migration is not a fundamental human right, but the UN is nevertheless encouraging it. It is, however, a fundamental human right for everyone to be able to live in peace and security in their own homeland, but the Compact doesn’t even mention this and does not protect these rights”.

“The UN would have liked to celebrate the Global Compact for Migration as the most important event of last year, but this experiment has failed”, Mr. Szijjártó stated. “Hungary, the United States, Israel, Poland, the Czech Republic, and later Brazil, recognised the Compact as the most dangerous migration document to date, and voted against it”, he said.

“Since the adoption of the package the UN has made several attempts to push through the contents of the Compact in parts, chapters, or as part of other documents. Hungary rejects these attempts and calls on the UN to stop them”, he explained. “Hungary will continue to reject any and all UN documents that refer to the Global Compact for Migration”, Mr. Szijjártó declared.

Referring to events in Europe in recent years, the Minister declared that as a result of Brussels’ “irresponsible and damaging” politics, millions of illegal migrants have arrived on the continent, many immigrants drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, and parallel societies have developed in Western Europe in which “the quiet majority is forced to coexist with the loud minority”.

Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the threat of terrorism, noting that people with migrant backgrounds have committed over 30 acts of terrorism in Europe, claiming the lives of over 300 people. The Minister said the Brussels politics aimed at putting pressure on European Union member states to do away with their national identity, their cultural, religious and historical heritage, and to ultimately ensure the establishment of a “United States of Europe”, was hypocritical and based on ideological principles.

He underlined that Hungary reject all this. “Hungary wants a strong Europe that is made up of strong member states. It wants to preserve its national identity, it is proud of its 1019-year statehood, and wishes to continue building that statehood around Christianity”, he declared.

According to Mr. Szijjártó Péter, recent developments in Europe indicate that efforts to protect the population must be increased: “ports are being opened to migrants, and there is renewed debate on the mandatory resettlement quotas”.

“The current situation on the Western Balkans is similar to events in 2015”, the Minister said, explaining that in his opinion many countries, international organisations and non-governmental organisations are currently still encouraging immigrants to set out for Europe, and are giving them the impression that it is the job of NGOs to take them to Europe, illegally.  “People smugglers and criminal organisations are the ones who are profiting from this; they are making millions of dollars”, he stated.

“The terrorist organisations, who are able to send assailants to various points around the world together with the migrants, are also winners. Everyone else is a loser, however: source countries that are losing their citizens, the transit countries through which the migrants pass while behaving aggressively, and the target countries, where parallel societies come about. And the greatest losers are the migrants themselves, who are entrusting their very lives to chance”, the Minister declared.

“Assistance must be taken to where it is needed, and problems should not be generated in places where they do not yet exist”, Mr. Szijjártó underlined. “Hungary has spent over 40 million dollars on assisting Christian communities in the Middle East, and has helped 50 thousand people to remain at home, or to return homme at the earliest opportunity”, Mr. Szijjártó stated. “Via this programme, Hungary would also like to draw attention of the international community to the fact that Christianity is currently the most persecuted religion on earth”, he added.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister also highlighted the fact that this year Hungary has increased its funding to the world’s least developed countries by 600 percent, to 29 million dollars, and is providing five times the previous level of funding to Africa, at 25 million dollars. “Hungary is also providing scholarship places to a total of 4873 students from Africa, Asia and South America”, he added.

(MTI)