EU Migration Pact Forced Through despite Growing Threat of Terrorism

While “violence raged” in the streets of some European countries on New Year’s Eve due to illegal migration, in Brussels the migration pact was pushed through in the last days of the year, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Interior Bence Rétvári said at a press conference on Wednesday.

The automatic distribution of illegal migrants on the basis of quotas is a “migrant magnet,” the State Secretary warned. He noted that a country that does not want to take them in should pay HUF 8 million (EUR 20,000) per migrant. In a crisis situation, he continued, a second quota would be introduced, and it would be compulsory to take in migrants.

He emphasized that:

Hungary rejects the migration pact and each of its elements separately.”

The state secretary said that on New Year’s Eve, there were riots in Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium, with migrants setting cars on fire and attacking police officers. “However, in Hungary there is peace and security, and such incidents do not take place,” he stressed.

At the same time, he pointed out that illegal migrants often act aggressively at Hungary’s borders, with 18 attacks on border guards last year, 125 attacks on their vehicles, and 44 cases of damage to border barriers. He also noted that at the end of the year, parliament adopted an amendment to the Police Act and introduced the institution of “warning shots.” Thus, if other means of coercion fail, there is a new possibility of coercive measure, Bence Rétvári said.

György Bakondi, the Prime Minister’s chief advisor on homeland security, noted that based on aggregate data from Frontex, 355,300 people entered Europe illegally last year, the highest number since 2016, and a 17% increase compared to the previous year. Meanwhile, 80% of expulsions have been unsuccessful, there have been more serious terrorist attacks in Western Europe, public security is deteriorating, and antisemitism is on the rise, he said.

He pointed out that last year, countries with internal Schengen borders reintroduced border controls in a series of cases, causing economic damage in Europe. The chief advisor also explained that

Serbia had taken “strong national security measures” against armed groups on its territory last autumn, which had temporarily reduced the pressure on the Hungarian border and led to migrants trying to detour to Croatia and Romania.

This is noticeable at the Hungarian-Romanian border, where the number of people apprehended at the green border has almost doubled.

In Hungary, the number of illegal border-crossers intercepted last year was 173,298, and more than a thousand people smugglers were also apprehended. The majority of migrants are Syrian, Afghan, Turkish, Indian, and Pakistani and the smugglers are Romanian, Ukrainian, Serbian, and Moldovan, the chief advisor concluded.

Via MTI, Featured image: police.hu