Orbán’s cabinet hails Libya plans to build refugee camps

Plans to build migrant camps in Libya accord with the Hungarian government’s stance aimed at halting illegal migration outside the European Union, János Lázár, the government office chief, said on Thursday.

Lázár noted at a weekly press briefing that for the past two years the government had proposed creating hotspots outside the bloc. Migrants staying at the facilities would be made to follow necessary procedures, he said, adding that the government supported endeavours to return migrants to their homelands and eliminate the causes of migration.

In the first eight months of the year, 773 migrants entered Hungary illegally, Lázár said. Without Hungary’s fence along its southern borders “the numbers would be comparable to two years ago,” he added.

On the subject of EU action taken against Poland, Lázár said that the European Commission and Germany had “launched a campaign” against Poland and were applying “double standards”. Hungary supports the Polish people and their government, he said.

Hungarian FM slams EU’s use of ‘double standards’

Hungary rejects the European Union’s use of “double standards” against any member state, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said at a press conference on another subject on Thursday.

“We reject the European Union applying double standards against any country, and unfortunately we can see the European Commission’s strong use of double standards in the case of Poland. This is unacceptable,” Szijjártó said in response to a question about EU-Poland relations after talks between EU and Eastern Partnership country officials.