The EU Has Lost Control Over Immigration, Claims State Secretary

The European Union does not dare to protect its external borders, it has lost control over immigration. This process is now regulated by people smugglers, who decide who will become European citizens and who will not – said Bence Rétvári, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, on the M1 news channel.

“Illegal migration is on the rise, hundreds of thousands of people appear every year at the external borders of the European Union, only at the southern border of Hungary last year we turned back 270,000 cases of illegal border crossers,” the State Secretary stressed.
He added: the EU cannot stop illegal migrants at its borders, “not only the intention but also the will is lacking, which is why the people smugglers are unfortunately the determinants of the European population”; the underworld of North Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans decides who becomes a European citizen.

According to Bence Rétvári, there is no central will in the EU to prevent this, “and in fact, proceedings are being brought against Hungary for defending its southern border”.
Yet recently, in Athens, fifteen EU Member States, including Hungary, adopted a joint declaration that the protection of external borders should be a common EU objective and that the EU should contribute to the costs of border protection, the Minister of State recalled. He said that in Hungary’s case the expenses have risen to one and a half billion euros.
“The fifteen countries are the majority of the EU, but at times like this, the Luxembourg Foreign Minister, for example, says that they will never contribute to the construction of fences and walls, they will never support this”, Bence Rétvári continued, adding that

there are always those who are pro-immigration and who do not take any meaningful steps to ensure that the protection of external borders is funded from common EU resources.

Photo: Facebook Médecins Sans Frontières

“This is the dominant worldview within the EU, the pro-migration. They continue to push for the mandatory distribution of migrants according to quotas, they do not see that this is an invitation letter and it does not work”, added the State Secretary. He noted that only a fraction of expulsion decisions can be enforced, “in nine out of ten cases they are able to expel someone, but a good number of them then try to re-enter the EU”.
Trafficking networks bring hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants into Europe, said Bence Rétvári. He recalled last year’s shooting incident on the M5 motorway and said that the busload of migrants found there alone had paid 41 million forints (EUR 103.000) to the smugglers. “It is a huge business, no wonder that every other day you can hear (the sound of) shooting from Serbia, gang wars are going on,” he said. He added that “in practice, the EU is increasing the profits of the people smugglers”.

Featured photo: Médecins Sans Frontières