Government office chief: Quota system has failed

The European Union’s migrant quota scheme has failed, the government office chief said on Thursday, stating that member states had only relocated 29 percent of the designated number of asylum seekers by the Sept. 26 deadline.

Member states managed to take in just 29,144 migrants of the 98,255 that had been agreed on, János Lázár told a his weekly news conference. This shows that the institutional common immigration system is destined to fail, he argued.

Lázár said the European Commission’s voluntary resettlement scheme designed to relocate 50,000 migrants would meet the same fate, adding that it was “baffling” why Brussels was forcing the issue.

The government office chief said border protection was a national competency and reiterated that the government had no intention of participating in the EU’s joint migration policy.

“The government will of course not relocate anyone to Hungary,” Lázár insisted.

On the topic of the government’s public survey to be launched early next month, Lázár said the questionnaire focuses on US financier George Soros’s immigration plan.

Lázár said that under the plan, the European Union must accommodate one million immigrants a year, break down its border controls and provide migrants with 9 million forints’ (EUR 29,000) worth of financial aid over their first two years in the EU. In addition, migrants would be shown leniency when it comes to punishment for unlawful acts and the EU would set up a joint asylum agency, Lázár said. Moreover, nation states would be replaced by “a new social structure”.

The public survey, dubbed “national consultation”, is now accessible and copies of it will be sent out to every household by the start of November, he said.

As regards Germany’s recent parliamentary elections, Lázár said Hungary’s interest lay in Germany having a strong and stable government. He congratulated CDU/CSU on their victory, adding that the ruling coalition would enforce their joint values.