“Hungary will be voting no to the Global Compact for Migration, because most of its goals are at odds with Hungary’s national interests”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared on Wednesday in New York at the plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly, the topic of which was the adoption of the UN Global Compact for Migration.

The Hungarian Minister was the first to be given the opportunity to put forward his country’s position prior to the vote, immediately following the opening remarks of Session President Maria Fernanda Espinosa.

In his speech, Mr. Szijjártó confirmed the Government’s standpoint according to which the UN is making a grave mistake by adopting the Compact because it is unbalanced, biased, and pro-immigration in the extreme. “Those who are voting in favour of the Compact are contributing to the launching of new waves of mass migration, and these waves bear with them a huge risk to the whole planet”, he said.

The Foreign Minister objected to the fact that the Compact portrays migration as a fundamental human right. “In addition, the Global Compact to all intents and purposes accepts that immigrants may search for a new home while violating borders, and by doing so is in essence encouraging the process, and in fact calls on member states to support this”, he pointed out.

Mr. Szijjártó said that while the Compact portrays the effects of migration as something that is favourable to humanity, it is in fact a dangerous process that destabilises both source countries and transit countries, and which can lead to the creation of parallel societies in target countries, which represents a huge security risk.

The Minister also objected to the fact that several of the Compact’s goals are at odds with Hungary’s security interests. He underlined the fact that Hungary regards how countries defend their borders and who they allow entry to as being among some of the most important sovereign decisions made by individual states. The Government also rejects the Compact’s proposal according to which the issue of border protection must be approached from a human rights perspective. “Because the protection of borders is an issue of national security, and is also the duty of every country, and people who violate borders illegally must be strictly punished”, he explained.

“Hungary also does not agree at all with the claim that immigration is favourable from the perspective of labour market and demographic challenges; neither economic policy nor family policy can allow the application of pressure on independent countries”, Mr. Szijjártó explained. “The Hungarian Government also does not believe that a given country is less valuable than any other because its society does not become a multicultural one”, he underlined.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister also spoke about the fact that the European Union’s migration policy, which adopts a similar approach to the UN’s, has failed, and was practically equal to an invitation to hundreds of thousand of migrants, who succeeded in entering Europe without any kind of control. “In addition to the appearance of parallel societies, this has also brought with it an increased threat of terrorism in view of the fact that in recent years 30 terrorist attacks have been committed by attackers with migrant backgrounds, claiming the lives of over 300 people”, Mr. Szijjártó explained, adding that now the UN is preparing to make exactly the same mistake.

Hungary, whose Government has received a mandate to do so three times from its citizens according to the Minister, is also voting no because it does not want a repeat of the 2015 events, when 400 thousand immigrants crossed the border illegally and marched through the country, while attacking police and showing absolutely no respect for the local regulations or culture. “For this reason, Hungary’s position is based on strict border protection and the rejection of illegal immigration, and instead of immigration the Government is trying to solve social challenges by modernising the education system and assisting families, and keeping Hungary for the Hungarians”, he stated.

“Instead of encouraging migration, the international community should be working to stop it; it must not support the business model of people smugglers, and help must be taken to where it is needed: we must work to ensure that migrants can stay at home, or as close as possible to home”, Mr. Szijjártó underlined.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)