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The EU interior ministers’ statement on the situation in Afghanistan adopted at their Tuesday meeting clearly reflects the position Hungary’s government has maintained since the migration crisis in 2015, the Hungarian interior minister said in Brussels.
In the statement, the interior ministers insisted that the Afghan people must be helped to stay in the region and supported there after the Taliban have come to power in their country, Sándor Pintér told reporters. They also emphasized the need to protect the borders of the European Union, he added.
Hungary’s proposal for drawing up a concrete plan of action as soon as possible was also backed by the interior ministers, he said.
Hungary will not stay away from supporting Afghan people in the region who are in danger, with particular attention to the situation of women and children, Pintér said. “Nevertheless, it is highly important that only those people should be allowed to cross the borders of Europe whom we, in the continent, accept to take in,” he said.
“Hungary at the moment does not take refugees over from other countries because it must first be examined who had helped the Hungarian army contingent’s mission in Afghanistan. Decisions on letting them enter Hungary will be made accordingly,” Pintér said.
“Just because someone is an Afghan citizen, we do not necessarily support their admission to Hungary,” he said.
Referring to the danger of terrorism, Pintér said, “it is hard to know who are arriving and who have been sent by the Taliban. This is something to be thoroughly investigated, as Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency, suggested previously.”
Featured photo illustration by MTI/AP/Kathy Gannon
