“Migration processes must be stopped, not encouraged, and its causes must be eliminated”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a statement to public media on Wednesday.

The Minister is attending a UN Water Convention conference in Kazakhstan, where with relation to this he explained: “There are more and more processes ongoing around the world that are capable of giving rise to more waves of migration”. Of these, “one of the most serious is the water crisis, which the world is on the brink of”, he said. “Chronic water scarcity has developed in several parts of the world, whereas in other parts there is too much water, and islands and low-lying areas could disappear in future because of climate change”, he added.

Mr. Szijjártó said that in his opinion this is threatening to cause further waves of migration, and accordingly “instead of inspiring more waves of migration, the UN should be concentrating on how to eliminate the causes that could give rise to the launching of further waves of migration in the upcoming period”.

“For this reason, Hungary is calling for the UN to set up an intergovernmental organisation within a year, which will be tasked with developing the policies required to handle water-related challenges and gaining the support of UN member states to enable their implementation”, The Minister stressed.

Mr. Szijjártó highlighted his hope that the Polish Interior Minister’s initiative will be successful  and “the opinions that are becoming increasingly loud within the Austrian Government are also reciprocated”, and that more and more UN member states will join the United States and Hungary to draw attention, with relation to the UN Global Compact for Migration, to the fact that “it represents a danger to the world, it is the worst response that the UN could possibly provide to migration challenges”, and that migration processes “must finally be stopped” instead of being encouraged.

“More and more UN member states are drawing attention to the fact that we have an increasing chance that the UN will not commit the same errors in future as the European Union has”, the Foreign Minister said. “We are rooting for the Polish Interior Minister and for the views that are gaining an increasing voice within the Austrian Government, so that both the Poles and the Austrians will occupy a similar position with relation to the Global Compact for Migration as that of the United States and Hungary”, he said.

(MTI)