On Friday, in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said that it is strange and unacceptable that instead of seeking real solutions, Swedish Minister for Justice and Migration Morgan Johansson is judging a country that complies with regulations.
Mr. Szijjártó said this in response to Stockholm’s announcement to summon the Hungarian Ambassador to the Foreign Ministry. In a statement to press agency TT, Mr. Johansson expressed the Swedish government’s objection to Hungary’s unwillingness to receive migrants returned from Sweden, who were first registered in Hungary.
Mr. Szijjártó said that “I categorically reject the completely unfounded judgement by Sweden’s Minister for Justice and Ministry”. Hungary’s position on the reception of returned migrants is clear and unchanged: “we will only receive those, who actually entered the territory of the EU for the first time in Hungary”. Hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East region, however, have crossed at least one EU Member State before arriving in Hungary. They will not be received by Hungary, he added.
Hungary is one of those few countries that have complied with EU regulations since the beginning of the migration crisis, Mr. Szijjártó stressed, adding that “we are protecting our own border, which is also the EU’s external border; thus we are also protecting Sweden”.