Hungarian foreign minister criticises EU for ‘failed’ migration policy

A Külgazdasági és Külügyminisztérium (KKM) által közreadott képen Szijjártó Péter külgazdasági és külügyminiszter sajtótájékoztatót tart hivatalában 2017. március 16-án. Ankara részben felfüggesztette az Európai Unió és Törökország közötti menekültügyi megállapodást, az intézkedés értelmében Törökország jelenleg nem vesz vissza illegális migránsokat Görögországból. MTI Fotó: KKM

Budapest, March 16 (MTI) – The European Union’s migration policy “based on a partial solution” has failed, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told a press conference on Thursday, concerning Turkey’s possible terminating its deal with the community.

Szijjártó said that making Europe’s security dependent on such a deal, while “criticising Turkey and doing nothing to step up border protection,” is an “ill-considered and futile” policy. He insisted that “it had been apparent from the beginning that the EU-Turkey agreement could not handle the mass immigration issue in the long run”. He also suggested that “if once more thousands of migrants arrived at the borders each day, the EU would be just as helpless as it was a few months or years ago.”

The minister said the right attitude was to reinforce the “legal and physical border seal” and noted the importance of Hungary’s new rules, under which illegal entrants could be detained, in light of the “fragile nature of the EU’s migration policy”.

Answering a question about a recent dispute between the Netherlands and Turkey, Szijjártó said it was “lamentable” that NATO allies should have a “conflict over such a question”. He added that the tension could impact security policy cooperation.

Commenting on the recent parliamentary election in the Netherlands, Szijjártó congratulated the winning government party and welcomed the result of the Christian Democrats.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI

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