“The pressure put on certain countries to admit refugees is unacceptable”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stressed in a statement to Hungarian News Agency MTI prior to the opening of the United Nations General Assembly’s autumn session in New York.

Mr. Szijjártó said that the fact that the situation in Syria is worsening, that it seems the agreement between the world’s superpowers is not working and the situation in the war-ravaged region is taking another dramatic turn for the worse, is clearly casting a shadow on the meeting of the international organisation.

“It once again seems a little hopeless that the situation will be put in order and unfortunately Europe will once again bear the brunt of the fact that the situation in Syria remains unsolved, because sorting out the situation in Syria is the prime requisite for solving the immigration crisis. While there is no peace in Syria we must expect newer and newer masses of people to set out towards Europe”, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted. “The fact that the situation has taken a dramatic turn for the worse with the accidental bombing of Syrian government forces and humanitarian convoys means the chance for a solution is once again very far away”, he stressed.

According to Hungary’s chief diplomat, it is now once again a realistic danger that the six and a half million people who used to live in Syria as domestic refugees and the thirteen and a half million people who still live in Syria with the help of humanitarian aid will see their situation as almost impossible and head out towards Europe.

“Since the EU-Turkey agreement is creaking and crackling and are aware of some signs of tension and instability in the Western Balkan region, if another wave of migration sets off for Europe from Syria it could reach Hungary’s southern border within a very short time”, said Mr. Szijjártó, according to whom this is exactly why it is important to reinforce the protection of our borders.

“More and more foreign leaders are applying pressure on practically the whole world, but of course primarily on the developed countries in Europe and in the Far East and North America, to admit more immigrants. I view this as misguided”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister stressed, adding that “We shouldn’t be trying to solve the problem by encouraging as many people as possible to leave these regions; we should instead be providing them with assistance where they are”.

“So we should take help there instead of bringing the problem here”, he said. According to the Hungarian standpoint it is not right for the President of the United States or for any other leading politician to apply pressure to certain countries in the interests of making them admit more refugees, because we should all be concentrating much more on solving the situation in Syria.

“We Europeans must recognise that this depends on the world’s superpowers and it would be good if the superpowers did their utmost to put the situation in Syria in order”, the Foreign Minister stressed. Mr. Szijjártó also told the press that the European Union’s foreign ministers had discussed this very topic in New York on Monday and had consulted with the UN Special Representative and representatives of the Syrian opposition, but, as he explained, for the moment the situation seems hopeless.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)