“The Government’s number one goal continues to be to preserve the security of the Hungarian people”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in New York on Friday.

In his speech at the series of negotiations on the United Nations Global Compact for Migration, the Minister highlighted: “In recent years Hungary gained major experience concerning the nature of illegal migration, when large numbers of people travelled across the country towards more affluent Western European states”. “Events have proven that border protection is a country’s extremely important obligation”, he pointed out.

“Hungary does not agree with the final text of the UN Global Compact for Migration, because it centres on the rights of migrants, whereas we should not only be concentrating on their rights, but also on the rights of people who want to live in secure and peaceful conditions in their own homelands”, Mr. Szijjártó stressed.

“Previously, Hungary had considered exiting the negotiations based on previous drafts of the Compact’s text, but decided to stay because it believes in dialogue based on mutual respect and trust”, the Minister recalled. “However, there are points in the final version with which the Government still does not agree”, he stated.

Citing one such point, he said that the general approach of the proposal is that migration is a fundamental human right and an unequivocally good tendency.

“According to Hungary, migration should not be encouraged and the decision on what solution a country wishes to apply to solve its demographic and job market problems must be left within a national sphere of competence; countries must not be pressured into agreeing that migration is the only possible solution”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

“Instead of encouraging migration, we should focus on the causes of migration and provide assistance where it is truly needed”, the Minister said.

“Hungarian migration policy is based on common sense, and Hungary continues to insist that people can only enter its territory legally. We are keeping Hungary a country of Hungarians”, the Foreign Minister said.

(MTI)