“People who support migration are supporting the return of terrorists”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared on Hungarian M1 television’s Thursday morning current affairs program.

Concerning Wednesday’s meeting of foreign ministers of the Budapest Process, which concentrates on migration issues relating to the countries of the Silk Road, Mr. Szijjártó said everything was once again all about how migration is so good and a process that is necessary for everyone.

“Until the speech by the Hungarian delegation, nobody spoke about the security risks associated with migration or the fact that every country has the right to decide if it wants to participate in migration processes in any form at all”, he said.

“The goal of the session was to ‘push through’ the UN Global Compact for Migration, which they were unsuccessful in having adopted in December, in parts. In addition, they attempted to have adopted a closing statement in which they referred to the Global Compact for Migration, and in which they once again presented it in a context according to which migration is the good response to the challenges facing us”, he added.

“Hungary has a totally opposite opinion, and accordingly the unanimous adoption of the statement was prevented thanks to the fact that the four countries of the Visegrád Group, as well as Austria and Italy, did not sign the document, citing the fact that migration bears risks, and decisions on it fall within a national sphere of competence.”, Mr. Szijjártó stated.

“If unanimously adopted, the document could have become a legal and political point of reference, as was also their goal with the Global Compact for Migration. Hungary has already seen how something voluntary becomes mandatory, for instance in the case of the resettlement quotas”, he pointed out.

Speaking on Kossuth Radio’s “Good Morning, Hungary!” show, Mr. Szijjártó said that citing the Global Compact for Migration in any form is unacceptable, since the Compact relativizes the illegal crossing of borders.

“With the document, the UN attempted to ensure that countries do not rule illegal border crossing to be a crime, whereas illegally crossing a border is a crime against the sovereignty of the given country”, the Foreign Minister stressed.

Within the Budapest Process, the participating countries focus on migration issues relating to the Silk Road region: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq and Iran. This cooperation, which was established in 1993, was named after the Hungarian capital because the first official meeting of the participating countries was held in Budapest. Today, a total of 52 states are taking part in the Budapest Process, and 7 countries have observer status, including the United States. Hungary takes part in this cooperation as Co-Chair, and since 2006 the role of President has been played by Turkey.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)