Europe is a divided continent historically, geographically, culturally and also economically in the good sense of the word, and therefore there is no need for unity within the European Union regarding the issue of migration. If we accept this, we can start finding the points on which we can agree, the Parliamentary and Strategic State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office said on Saturday at the migration conference of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) held in the Castle Garden Bazaar in Budapest.
Balázs Orbán highlighted that we can all agree that uncontrolled, illegal, intensive, mass population movements are harmful for everyone because in every instance this kind of influx undermines the given region’s stability and social cohesion, and imposes a disproportionate burden on the care system.
According to research, the very circumstances in which migrants arrive – how and via which route – determine their capacity for integration, the State Secretary observed.
Mr Orbán stressed that we must regain control and protect our borders. To achieve this, it is necessary to adopt four measures.
He said the legal system must be changed because the current regulations encourage the illegal influx of migrants. We must also change our communication channels in order to relay a consistent message about whether we support illegal migration or not, and if not, then that is the message that must be relayed to those setting out. It is additionally necessary to build the right infrastructure which enables us to stop migrants at the borders and to assess their applications as Hungary does at its southern border. As a fourth measure we must help those who need it locally, the State Secretary listed.
In his view, however, the EU is doing the very opposite of these measures as it is transforming the legal system by elevating migration to a human right, is conveying inconsistent messages, is blocking and undermining the border protection efforts made at the level of nation states, and fails to provide genuine assistance in the issuer countries: it only holds those living there to account over principles, without seeking to understand what they need and without supporting them financially.
The State Secretary also said that while the European Commission claims that the migration crisis is over, in his view, this conclusion is incorrect as also at present four million people are waiting in Turkey to set out for the European Union, and in the Sub-Saharan region some 710 million people are entertaining the idea of leaving their countries. This means that the migration crisis is still here, and it is here to stay, Mr Orbán stated.