“An answer must be found for the African migration pressure that is expected in the upcoming decades”, Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister György Bakondi said on Hungarian M1 television’s Wednesday morning current affairs program.

According to the most recent study by the Migration Research Institute, African migration, which is also expected to occur as a result of climate change and is expected to put tens of millions of people on the move, will also be one of the greatest challenges for Europe in the 21st century. According to the study, which was published on Tuesday, the majority of researchers agree that climate change will directly or indirectly cause series of conflicts in the coming decades, forcing millions of people, and in an extreme case and over a longer time scale possible one billion people, to leave their homes.

In response to this, Mr. Bakondi said that according to a NATO-study some 60 million Africans will leave their homes by 2020, which represents a major challenge. Many are already reaching Libya or Morocco today, after which they are trying to get into the European Union from there, he added.

The Chief Security Advisor said that in his view this is one of the reasons why UN migration policy carries such importance. If the world organisation makes a rash decision according to momentary political interests, it could have serious repercussions for Europe he said.

“Thus, we are in a period when political decisions will determine the future, possibly in a very negative manner, Mr. Bakondi said.

Speaking on Kossuth Radio’s “180 minutes” program, the Chief Security Advisor noted that joint action on the part of the Visegrád Group (V4) with relation to the issue is assured, and even the Brussels politicians are already accustomed to the fact that the four countries must be taken into consideration and that separate negotiation need to be held with them. “The Government’s proposals are not only popular among the Hungarian people, but also throughout Europe”, he said.

(MTI)