Foreign Minister: Most UN states source of migration or transit countries

Commenting on the start of a debate on migration at the United Nations headquarters in New York, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said the issue of whether migration is stopped or enabled is what is at stake in the intergovernmental debate on the global migration package.

At a press conference in Budapest on Wednesday, Szijjártó said the four intergovernmental rounds, followed by a decision on the global migration package at the end of the year, were conducted by UN member states the majority of which were either the source of migration or transit countries, so they were interested in organising migration and urged the package’s approval.

“Confronting all this is Hungary, which is urging a halt to migration,” the minister said.

Szijjártó said it was regrettable that instead of representing the security interests of EU citizens, Brussels had sought a common position before Tuesday’s debate in support of the organisation of migration. Hungary vetoed this but, unprecedentedly, the EU presented its standpoint as a united one with a view to quashing Hungary in voicing its position, he said.

Hungary’s proposal put forward in the UN is that migration cannot be considered as a positive process and it should be stopped, he said. Further, Hungary rejects the plan to form migration routes and eliminate border protections. It also disagrees with the idea that migration is a fundamental human right. Rather, migration heightens the threat of terror and undermines security, he added. The next debate will be on March 12, he noted.