Minister of Interior Sándor Pintér led the Hungarian delegation at the “Vienna Future Dialogue” conference on 23 January 2017. The other members of the delegation included the Ministry of Interior’s Deputy State Secretary for EU and International Affairs Mátyás Hegyaljai and National Police Commissioner Lt-Gen Károly Papp. The Interior Minister’s entourage was joined in Vienna by Hungary’s Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Austria János Perényi.
At the event, which was held with the participation of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia and Switzerland, and with representatives of Bulgaria, France, Holland, Croatia, Canada, Liechtenstein and Slovakia attending as observers, the Hungarian Interior Minister stressed: “The current wave of migration is not a temporary humanitarian crisis, but the beginning of a mass human migration that is a global problem, and which as such requires a global solution and a comprehensive strategic approach”.
Mr. Pintér pointed out that 391,000 migrants arrived in Hungary illegally across the green border in 2015, of whom 177,000 submitted requests for asylum, but only 5,000 waited until their asylum proceedings were duly completed; the majority travelled on to other countries, also illegally. The migrants refused to accept Hungary’s laws both when they crossed the border and later.
In his speech, Mr. Pintér explained: “Hungary regards valuable integration as a two-directional process. New arrivals do not need to give up their culture, language or customs, but must only be able to practice them in harmony with the legal norms of Hungary and the European Union. Part of integration is that people who want to settle in a country must accept the supreme power that regulates the given country and cannot place the legal or religious rules of their country of origin above the laws of the host country”.
“Hungary is firmly convinced that the stipulations and values of refugee-related legislation must be upheld and that refugees must be accommodated, protected and afforded dignified living conditions close to their countries of origin, so that they may return home when the crisis is over. People arriving from territories that have not suffered from natural disasters or that are not being ravaged by war should not be regarded as refugees. Member States should only accept people they need and who voluntarily undertake to work, study and learn the language of the given country, and who in addition accept the laws of the host country to be binding with regard to both themselves and their families”, he continued. The Minister of Interior stressed: “Hungary is providing international protection for those who actually and truly need it, but is differentiating between true refugees and economic immigrants”.
“According to Hungary’s standpoint, the idea that a given host country is capable of tangibly affecting the people who arrive there is a mistaken one. In addition to many other influences, the recruitment effects of social media, the establishment of free groups and invitations and motivation to join them, and their guidance on how to live an illegal life and manufacture explosive devices, must also be taken into account”, Mr. Pintér highlighted. “Europe is not only being threatened by radicalisation within its countries’ borders, and accordingly it is important that we inform each other even more efficiently with regard to persons and phenomena that represent a danger”, the Hungarian Interior Minister said in summary.