“The adoption of the comprehensive Migration Compact currently under debate is the worst possible step that the UN can take for handling the challenge of migration, because it will lead to dangerous processes and further waves of immigration”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared in his speech at the high-level meeting of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Friday evening.
“The Government does not support the draft, because it goes against Hungarian interests”, he emphasised. “The handling of migration could decide our future for a long time in the globalised world: the encouragement it provides would turn every country into a source, transit or target country”, Mr. Szijjártó explained. “Hungary rejects this, and regards exactly the opposite as being desirable, i.e. that the international community should respect the sovereignty of individual states and the right of countries to place the security of their own citizens first, and that they should be able to decide for themselves who they allow onto their territory and who they do not. The international community must support individual countries to enable them to preserve their historical, religious and cultural heritage and social structure”, he highlighted.
The Minister said that in his opinion the Compact concentrates exclusively on the interests and welfare of migrants, whereas it should also be dealing with the question of what fundamental rights are possessed by people who want to live their lives in secure and peaceful conditions.
In his speech, Mr. Szijjártó said that the current period can be characterised by huge waves of migration. This, however, is bringing with it huge security risks worldwide, has disrupted the stability of many countries, and has led to major political disputes. One of its consequences is that there is now a threat of terrorism in areas that were previously free of such dangers.
Migration is not favourable for anyone: for those who set out to find a new home while risking their lives, while the admittance of huge numbers of people often causes a problem for target countries, in addition to which the people they are having to admit often represent a totally difference culture. As a result, migration leads to the appearance of parallel societies, and this has a major security impact.
Mr. Szijjártó recalled the events of 2015, when 400 thousand illegal immigrants marched through Hungary, did not conform to local laws, attacked police, did not respect the local culture and way of living, and acted aggressively towards the people living there.
He stressed that the European Union’s migration policy has failed, because it provided a bad response to the given challenge: instead of stopping and handling the wave of immigration it continuously sent invitations to the migrants. In addition, the EU wanted to introduce mandatory resettlement quotas, and blackmailed and threatened countries that rejected this, including Hungary. “This all proved to be an unsuccessful and damaging approach”, he explained.
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“Over the past four years over 30 terrorist attacks have been committed in Europe, all of which were related to migration. Over 300 people died in these attacks and over a thousand were injured”, he stated.
“Brussels says that it is impossible to stop migration, but Hungary has proven that it is possible: with the help of the other Visegrád Group (V4) countries Hungary closed its border and blocked the land route for illegal immigration, he added. Mr. Szijjártó also welcomed the fact that Italy has recently succeeded in closing the maritime route, despite receiving strong criticism for doing so”, Mr. Szijjártó said.
The Minister highlighted the fact that international efforts must concentrate on stopping the wave of immigration. “International organisations must make it clear that immigration is not a fundamental human right, in contrast to their current practice, which is suggesting exactly the opposite. Representatives of the UN and other institutions often speak about migration as a source of economic growth and global prosperity, as if it is the best thing that can happen to humanity; Hungary strongly opposes this approach and does also not agree with the suggestion that immigration is the best solution to demographic and job market challenges”, he explained.
Mr. Szijjártó also explained that the Compact seems to suggest that border security measures must be judged on a human rights basis, but this is an extremely dangerous approach. Hungary strongly rejects this, because the protection of borders is a question of national security. “Only legal border crossing can be regarded as acceptable, those who break the law must be heavily punished”, he declared.
“Hungary also does not agree with the fact that the Compact suggests that a multicultural society would be better than a homogeneous one. According to our standpoint, Hungarian society is in no way inferior of less valuable that those in which several culture coexist”.
“Hungary would not like the events of 2015 to be repeated”, the Foreign Minister said. “The Government’s number one priority is the security and welfare of the Hungarian people. Accordingly, it will continue to protect its borders and will not allow anyone to set foot on the country’s territory illegally”, he declared.
“The Government is also placing special emphasis on developing the education system and on facilitating the birth of more children. In the Government’s view, this is the right answer to demographic and job market challenges”, he added.
“The international community must stop migration, not encourage it”, Mr. Szijjártó concluded. “Help must be taken to where it is needed”, he added, pointing out that in this spirit Hungary is also helping Christian communities in the Middle East.
(MTI)
