Budapest, August 17 (MTI) – Hungary is making arduous effort in protecting its Schengen borders, state secretary Karoly Kontrat said on Monday, in response to claims by the EU’s Frontex organisation that Hungary has stayed away from joint missions.
Hungary was the only country to stay away from two missions on the Mediterranean aimed at reducing migration flow, the daily Magyar Nemzet reported on Monday. Hungary’s national police said it could not take part in the missions because it was busy protecting Hungary’s borders with Serbia, the paper said.
Considering its population and per capita GDP, Hungary bears the largest burden from illegal migration, Kontrat said. While 2,157 illegal entrants came to Hungary in the full year of 2012, just over the past weekend Hungary received 4,532 entrants, he said.
The leftist opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) said Europe has now become aware that Hungary’s hate-mongering prime minister is not interested in reducing migration, nor is he interested in protecting European borders. “Orban has revealed himself,” Zsolt Greczy, the party’s spokesman said, adding that Orban will continue to incite hatred as long as this allows him not to talk about education, public health or corruption.
The radical nationalist Jobbik party called on the government to immediately pull out of the Dublin Agreements and “not to register a single immigrant” in the country. Adam Mirkoczki, a spokesman for the party, told a press conference on Monday that if current trends continue immigration numbers can reach 300,000 by the end of the year. Hungary will not be able to integrate these masses “with a different culture, religion and customs,” he insisted. He said the Dublin Agreement is not a part of EU membership and it is possible to terminate it.
The opposition Egyutt party called on the Fidesz government to give up its failed and narrow-minded migration policies and to engage in talks on EU immigration policy. Failure to do so will result in Hungary’s isolation, Nora Hajdu, the party’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, said. She said it was impossible to understand the Hungarian government’s “stubborn insistence on finding national solutions and turning its back on solidarity”.
Photo: MTI