Chief Security Advisor György Bakondi said Hungary doesn’t want to implement the measures of the European Union’s migration pact which was not adopted with a unanimous vote and rejects settling migrants in the country.
Speaking on commercial broadcaster TV2, Bakondi said the EU approach to allow migrants into the bloc’s territory to await the assessment of their asylum applications “after they have crossed 6 to 8 safe countries” was “mistaken”. “In 2015, botched EU asylum policies led to some 400,000 migrants jostling here”, he warned. Bakondi said Hungary had done everything in its power to change EU decision-makers' stance, but its efforts had been in vain. Under the pact, EU countries may pay a quota if they refuse to accept illegal migrants, he said. At the same time, all member states are mandated to accept immigrants in emergency situations, “and determining when it is an emergency will be decided centrally”. “Settling migrants” was against Hungary’s fundamental law, he said, and it was in Hungary’s national interest only to accept those who have already obtained refugee status. Through the National Consultation public survey, Hungarians could give a mandate to the government to continue to vigorously represent its stance in the EU, he added.