According to the Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, illegal immigrants may construe the proposed reform of the Dublin Regulations as a letter of invitation.

György Bakondi was interviewed on the public service television news channel M1 in the context of the fact that the plenary sitting of the European Parliament has approved the mandate to enter into negotiations of the Dublin asylum reform package which was adopted by its Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) in October.

The Chief Security Advisor said: based on the new regulations, migrants will arrive in even higher numbers, as expected, given that the proposed provisions constitute a kind of “letter of invitation”. He added: migrants would be distributed according to an automatic mechanism, and they would be required to submit their asylum applications in the receiving country. In his view, there are two problems with this: on the one hand, there is the problem of sending those migrants back “who evidently pose a threat to European security”, such as individuals suspected of having committed acts of terrorism or other criminal offences, while on the other hand, there is the problem of expelling those who are not political refugees and have merely set out in the hope of a better life, and they are clearly in the majority.

Mr Bakondi also highlighted that, in his view, mainly the liberal members of the European Parliament would like to see the planned reform implemented before the 2019 EP elections because they are concerned that in the changed political atmosphere, the new European Parliament will perhaps not support ideas such as this.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)