Bundestag vice president warns against inciting fear of migrants

Budapest, October 5 (MTI) – It is the responsibility of political parties and governments to take seriously people’s fears connected with migration but also to refrain from inciting fear and capitalising on it to boost popularity, the vice president of the Bundestag said on Monday.

Claudia Roth said after meeting green opposition LMP co-leader Andras Schiffer that people should be aware that migrants arriving from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria are fleeing because it is impossible to live there. She said she welcomed LMP’s support for a European quota for the distribution of migrants. It is important that a well-balanced solution is being implemented because the great challenges that the European community is subjected to can only be resolved through cooperation, she said.

Roth said efforts must be made to reduce the causes of mass migration, including the arms trade.

She expressed hope that Hungary would play a serious and pro-active role in the fight against climate change, which is currently overshadowed by migration despite various studies showing that global warming could cause as many as 400 million people leave their current homes.

Schiffer said Hungary should take a share in common European migrant policy. The causes of mass migration should be openly discussed, including wars for natural resources, unfair trade conditions forced upon poor countries, the brain drain from countries on the peripheries and the consequences of climate change, he said.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters