Hungary build fence along Hungary-Romania border?

Budapest, September 15 (MTI) – Hungary has decided to prepare plans for building a fence along a section of its border with Romania, the foreign minister told a news conference on Tuesday.

Speaking at the signing of an economic cooperation agreement between Hungary and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Peter Szijjarto said the measure is needed because people smugglers working along the border with Serbia are changing their route due to the fence there, and migrant pressure is likely to move in the direction of Romania.

The fence will start from the Hungarian-Serbian-Romanian border and be built “at a reasonable length” if migration pressure shifts towards Romania, the minister said. He said “reasonable length” means the fence will likely extend “a few kilometres” past the border river Maros.

Szijjarto said that the European Union needs to sort out its priorities when dealing with the crisis. The minister stressed that border protection needs to be “at the top of the list”. He said “number two on the list” should be the EU providing aid to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria’s other neighbours for setting up and maintaining refugee reception centres. The EU must also help these countries provide care for refugees, in line with international conventions, he said.

The minister said Hungary agrees with the UAE’s stance that refugees fleeing war zones should get help as close to their home countries as possible, so that they can return home when the conflict is over. Szijjarto praised the UAE for its “honourable job in caring for hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees”.

Photo: MTI

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