The foreign minister has highlighted that Brussels is making a stealth attempt to reinstate its failed migration policy.
“There’s some hoodwinking going on when it comes to migration, with European officials cheering and giving their analysis about how the migration crisis is a thing of the past,” Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said during a break in a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels on Monday.
Minister Szijjártó argued that the most recent reports show that the number of people attempting to enter Europe illegally is up.
He said the fact that 50 percent more illegal migrants were apprehended in Turkey last year than in 2017 and that the number of arrivals on the Greek-Turkish land border is rising steadily contradicts the claims of some EU leaders.
Minister Szijjártó said the number of illegal arrivals registered in Spain has doubled over the course of just one year, adding that the number of illegal border crossings has also doubled in Cyprus.
The minister pointed out that the United Nations Global Migration Compact is included as a reference point in the migration chapter of the joint declaration of the EU-Arab League ministerial meeting scheduled for February.
Minister Szijjártó noted that one-third of the EU member states, including Hungary, did not vote for the package. He stressed that Hungary will not approve a declaration that encourages the exploitation of the opportunities presented by migration routes and says that migration can contribute significantly to the growth and sustainable development of origin, transit and destination countries.