„People who see refugees as the workforce of tomorrow are confusing employment policy with refugee policy”, Minister of Human Capacities Zoltán Balog declared at an event organised by the governing German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Bad Saulgau, Baden-Württemberg.
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Addressing the CDU Congress of the state’s Württemberg-Hohenzollern district as a keynote speaker, Mr. Balog stressed that the Hungarian Government had begun protecting the European Union’s external borders long ago by constructing the fence along the Serbian border, according to a report published by German news portal schwäbische.de. “Now, months later, this (the need for border protection) is what everyone is talking about”, he said.
In his speech, Minister Balog highlighted Germany’s and Hungary’s common Western, Judeo-Christian roots and explained that the world is becoming increasingly diverse, and it is precisely for this reason that we must reinforce our own identity and preserve our own values.
In a telephone statement to Hungarian news agency MTI following the conference, Mr. Balog stressed: “We shouldn’t confuse the requirement of certain European countries according to which they wish to rejuvenate their ageing societies through immigration and replace their missing workforce with immigrants with the issue (which is the true refugee issue) whereby someone is forced to leave their homeland because of persecution and because their life in danger. “We didn’t construct the temporary border security fence for fun; we were forced to do so because the Greek-Turkish border isn’t being protected”, Mr. Balog said.
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“The border security fence isn’t the best solution, of course, but this is the only way in which we could prevent a humanitarian disaster”, he declared, adding that we are still awaiting the best solution, which would be the protection of the Greek-Turkish border. The Minister also said that while Hungary was protecting its borders in accordance with its legal obligations, it has – with the help of charities and aid organisations – provided refugees with full care and support as required by international and Hungarian law.
The Hungarian Minister of Human Capacities was invited to attend the Congress by German Christian Democrat MP Thomas Bareiss, who in a statement to MTI on Friday said that Hungary and Germany face common challenges, which we can only cope with jointly. “The refugee issue can only be solved at a European level”, but the peoples of Europe are currently “not speaking with each other enough” to achieve this, and this is one of the reasons why it is important that the Hungarian standpoint should also be represented at the CDU conference, the Bundestag representative emphasised.
(Prime Minister's Office/MTI)
