György Bakondi, Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, has told public television channel M1 that Central Africa’s multitudes of migrants have not yet even set off: conservative estimates suggest that there are some one million illegal migrants in Libya, which is a sign for European nations that they must decide on a new migration policy as soon as possible.
The Chief Security Advisor said that it is for nation states to decide whether they want a new migration policy, and how they want to interpret it. One possible interpretation is in line with that of the EU: “receiving everyone and distributing migrants based on mandatory quotas” among Member States. Another interpretation is to take as a basis the Hungarian proposal, in which the essence is for Europe to be able to protect its external borders, select people in need of political asylum and keep economic migrants away, Mr. Bakondi said.
He added that stricter border protection measures in countries affected by migration have resulted in migrants looking for hitherto atypical routes: one new pattern now shows migrants setting off for Italy by boat from Libya, Egypt or Greece. The threat of millions of migrants makes the decision on migration policy an urgent issue: certain proposals call for strict controls to be conducted already at so-called “hotspots”, which should be established outside the territories of the European Union, Mr. Bakondi said.