Szijjarto proposes USD 300m support for Iraqi Kurdistan – UPDATE

Erbil, Iraq, October 7 (MTI) – Hungary will initiate that the European Union should provide 300 million dollars in support for Iraqi Kurdistan to finance its migrant services. In the absence of such a step, two million people, who have found refuge there, are expected to set off for Europe in the near future, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in Erbil, in northwestern Iraq, on Wednesday.

The minister told MTI over the phone that he would submit the proposal at the next meeting of EU foreign ministers and internal ministers in Luxembourg on October 8. Szijjarto said he will initiate for representatives of Iraq and the Kurdistan region to be invited to the next conference on migration and the Western Balkans route to be attended by the EU member states, the Western Balkan countries, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon.

Szijjarto held talks with President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani as well as with the region’s defence minister and foreign minister.

The minister said the reason for his visit to the Kurdistan region was that a significant number of migrants who enter Europe come from Iraq, adding that migrants from Iraq submitted the fourth highest number of asylum requests in Hungary.