Hungary refuses to implement the EU’s migrant relocation plans, will not accept mandatory quota, and has no desire to build “migrant ghettos” or migrant camps in the country, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated on Friday during the Hungarian-Austrian-Serbian migration summit in Austria’ capital city of Vienna.
“We will not accept the mandatory quota nor will we accept the obligation to build migrant ghettos and camps. We will find a legal and political way to ensure that Hungary does not implement the latest decision from Brussels,” said Orbán during the summit.
“The situation is sad, but Hungary must defend itself not only against illegal migrants and people smugglers, but also against Brussels, and we will do so,” he added.
Orbán’s remarks come after the EU appears to be set to move forward with plans for the mandatory relocation of migrants across Europe, with member states who reject taking in migrants having to pay €20,000 per migrant.
Hungary will not implement Brussels' #migration decisions. We will not accept mandatory quotas and we will not build migrant ghettos. Hungary first! 🇭🇺🇭🇺🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/7FWbDHN0Cc
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) July 7, 2023
He also touted what he described as the Hungarian model, which he says the EU is now trying to throw to the wayside despite its effectiveness in reducing mass immigration.
“The Hungarian model, which is effective, is based on a very simple idea. No one is allowed to enter Hungary until their asylum application has been assessed. You can only enter if the application you have submitted has a positive answer. Until then, you cannot enter the territory of the country. This is the Hungarian model, this is what works, and I believe that it should be adopted by all the countries of the European Union,” said the Hungarian prime minister.
“Unfortunately, this is not what is happening. Now, a regulation has been adopted in Brussels that imposes mandatory quotas and obliges member states to build refugee camps and migrant ghettos. This is bad not only for Hungary, ladies and gentlemen, but also for you Austrians,” he added.
Orbán also outlined that Hungary is facing tremendous numbers of migrants at its border but the EU has little interest in stopping these migratory flows.
“We are not only protecting Hungary, we are protecting the whole of Europe, including Austria, from illegal immigrants. Last year, we were protecting the whole of Europe, along the whole of Europe’s borders. A total of 330,000 illegal migrants were stopped. Of these, 270,000 were stopped at the Hungarian-Serbian border,” said Orbán.
The Hungarian leader recently made similar remarks about “migrant ghettos” while speaking on Kossuth Radio, saying: “So, we have been told that Hungary must provide tens of thousands of places for migrants. This will become a ghetto, a refugee camp, a migrant ghetto. Now I am fighting against this with every means at my disposal. And we have no intention of implementing these decisions. We are saying this openly.”
Orbán’s Fidesz party is now rallying together in total opposition to the migrant quota scheme, with MEP Tamás Deutsch stating that his country will not implement the European Union’s planned measures on the mandatory resettlement quota and migrant ghettos while speaking on state station Kossuth Radio on Sunday.
The MEP said Brussels was abusing its power to attack Hungary and initiate all kinds of political punitive measures because it considers the Hungarian model of dealing with illegal migrants to be legally questionable. The MEP also said that Hungary is being bullied by Brussels.
He continued by noting that “we are Europe’s defenders, since last year Hungary stopped more than a quarter of a million illegal migrants at the Serbian-Hungarian border, while in the last half decade we have prevented the entry of 1 million migrants seeking to enter Europe illegally, making the country a ‘leader in the ranking’.”
Deutsch said that “they want to force a scandalous new European solution down Hungary’s throat, the reason being that the multicultural ideology in Western Europe has collapsed, and the Willkommenskultur, the practice of welcoming migrants and giving illegal migration the green light, has had disastrous consequences.”
He added that Europeans see this every day in France, where there is a civil war, and recalled that not so long ago there were mass sexual assaults during the New Year’s Eve event in front of the Cologne Cathedral, as well as the terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris.
On the new legislative package, the MEP said that illegal migrants already in Western Europe would be forcibly relocated to Hungary when they become too much of a burden, with tens of thousands of migrants a year being provided with accommodation and food to university dormitory standards, and if there are too many applicants at their borders, the processing of their asylum applications would be left to Hungarians, among others.
He warned that migrant ghettos would be created in the Hungarian cities of “Paks, Baja, Esztergom, three quarters of Dunaújváros (three medium-sized Hungarian cities)”, which would not be closed, meaning that resettled migrants would be able to move freely in and out, thus posing a threat to public safety and public health.
