“There is an inexhaustible supply of illegal immigrants in Africa, and the EU and Brussels politics that encourages this is a total dead end that is endangering Europe’s security”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó underlined in a telephone statement to Hungarian news agency MTI from Abidjan, where he is representing the Hungarian Government at the 5th African Union-European Union Summit.
“According to what we have heard so far, the forecasts according to which the migration pressure on Europe from the direction of Africa will be continuously increasing are proving to be correct: several countries are being destabilised by terrorist activities, many countries are struggling with economic challenges, and as a result of being pushed back by international operations terrorist organisations are conducting an increasingly desperate battle”, Hungary’s chief diplomat said, summarising his experiences at the Summit.
“Unfortunately, it is clear from these facts that the migration pressure on Europe will increase further in the upcoming period”, Mr. Szijjártó said, pointing out that 400 thousand people have already accumulated in Libya, and Africa’s current population of 1.2 billion is expected to double by 2050.
“It was confirmed at the Summit that a policy that regards migration as the best European response to demographic and job market challenges is an extremely dangerous one”, the Minister stressed.
“Each encouraging and emboldening statement of this nature could cause thousands or hundreds of thousands of African immigrants to set off towards Europe”, Mr. Szijjártó said.
In his speech at the Summit, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade made it clear that the Hungarian Government understands if certain countries want to become immigrant countries, or are incapable of resisting, but Hungary is not such a country.
“Hungary wants to remain a Hungarian country. We do not want to become an immigrant country. For this reason we are strongly against all European decisions that encourage African migration, or migration from any other direction, even to a minor extent”, the Minister highlighted.
Mr. Szijjártó saw received by the Prime Minister of Ivory Coast, in addition to which he also met with the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Libya, Ghana, Sierra Leone, the Seychelles, Botswana and Niger. “Several countries share Hungary’s standpoint and are showing a willingness to enter into cooperation”, he told the press. “For security reasons, it is also not in the interests of African countries for masses of migrants to travel through the continent in an uncontrolled manner, and it is also against their interests for a sizeable proportion of their best workforce to leave, which could cause economic problems and thus provide a further impetus to migration”, the Minister explained.
“Several countries confirmed that cooperation between Africa and Europe in the interests of slowing migration must be organised around three points: African countries must receive border protection assistance instead of encouraging emigration, economic development funding and scholarship programmes”, Mr. Szijjártó explained with relation to his bilateral talks.
“Hungary is prepared not only to take part in these efforts, but to play an important role in them”, the Minister underlined, highlighting the fact that to date ungory has offered up 976 state-financed scholarships to enable young Africans to study at Hungarian universities and use their knowledge to help their own countries.
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
