“We are full” – these were the words used by Government Spokesperson Zoltán Kovács on the Tuesday night news programme of the public service television channel M1 to comment on the fact that, for technical reasons, the Office of Immigration and Nationality is suspending the acceptance of illegal migrants from other EU Member States in pending cases for an indefinite term.

The Government Spokesperson stressed: it has been the topic of debates for weeks that the Hungarian asylum system has reached its limits. Some 600-800 people arrive in Hungary daily through the green border which imposes an enormous burden on those who are responsible for the registration of immigrants.

“We have every reason to say that Hungary is taking a share in the struggle that is currently unfolding beyond its means, while most unfairly we only talk about the problems that afflict the countries of the Mediterranean”, Mr. Kovács added.

The Government Spokesperson said: the country would be unable to handle a situation where, in addition to the migration pressure coming from the south, other countries would start turning back to Hungary illegal migrants whose cases have been assessed unfavourably.

In answer to the question of whether Hungary has the right to withdraw from the Dublin Regulation (one of the EU’s asylum regulations, pursuant to which asylum-seekers may only submit an application for asylum in the EU Member State in which they first entered the territory of the European Community), Mr. Kovács said that realistically Hungary has no other option as the Hungarian asylum system is not prepared for a flood of refugees.

Mr. Kovács added that the EU itself appears to be unable to handle the situation; „we are facing a systemic error, we keep on saying this, and we are waiting for the measures and answers which may effectively contribute to the management of the situation which has evolved both on a European level and at the level of the individual Member States”, Zoltán Kovács said.

(Prime Minister's Office)