Viktor Orban wanted no part in Merkel’s migrant resettlement plan, and didn’t participate in the recent EU summit on the matter, largely because he is flat out opposed to admitting migrants into Hungary. His position is that it’s not his mandate to take migration orders from Brussels, but that it certainly is his mandate to protect his country and its people, pointing out that the Hungarian people would oust him if he violated it by importing migrants. He bluntly put it that ‘when it comes to the question of who can live in Hungary, Merkel is not the one in charge.”
Politico reports
Viktor Orbán panned efforts led by Germany’s Angela Merkel to reform EU-wide asylum policies, claiming it should be up to national governments to decide how many refugees they take in.
“When it comes to the question of who can live in Hungary, Merkel is not the one in charge,” the Hungarian prime minister said in an interview with BILD published late Thursday.
He would be “forced out of office” if he pursued refugee policies similar to Merkel’s, he added.
The Hungarian leader, one of the most vocal opponents to EU proposals to redistribute refugees among EU countries, blamed the high toll of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean on European politicians who “encourage migrants and create the impression that it’s worth the risk” to make the dangerous sea crossing.
Any decision that “sends the message to migrants that they can come will lead to new tragedies,” according to Orbán, who insisted the EU must stop people before they attempt to reach Europe in order to “save lives.”
Every EU member country should decide for itself whether it wants to take in refugees, he said, reiterating his long-held position that the Hungarian people “do not want migration” and that his first priority is to protect the country’s borders. Economic migrants will be turned away, he said.
The European Commission referred Hungary to the European Court of Justice last week over its poor treatment of asylum seekers, which it said violates a range of EU rules, including keeping asylum seekers in transit zones for excessively long periods and expelling them without the appropriate safeguards. The referral marks the final stage in an infringement proceeding launched against Budapest in 2015.
The Hungarian parliament last month passed controversial legislation known as the Stop Soros legislation that includes a ban on helping groups that assist migrants. Under the law, anyone found to be “facilitating illegal immigration” faces up to a year in jail.
Merkel’s resettlement plan, however, was effectively canned at the recent Brussels summit on migration, and many of the countries which participated are in the process of preventing further migration and deporting the migrants that they do have, notably Germany and Austria and Italy. Spain, on the other hand is now ground zero for the problem and is looking for financial aid to deal with it.
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