Hungary’s foreign minister has highlighted how migration poses “extreme risks” for Europe.
Following a ministerial meeting in the Budapest Process forum in Istanbul, Péter Szijjártó said it has now become clear that migration can be approached from two entirely different directions.
At the conference, representatives of the European Commission “did their best to highlight how good migration is for Europe” and insisted that further migration trends are needed. However, Minister Szijjártó said that “the unity of central Europe has again been demonstrated”, adding that Austria and Italy joined the four Visegrad countries and declined to sign the meeting’s closing document and its action plan.
“These countries do not at all accept the position that migration is good and it should be promoted,” Minister Szijjártó said. Migration poses “further and extreme” risks for Europe, he added.
The minister highlighted that former members of the Islamic State terrorist organization had been arrested in Bosnia-Herzegovina and North Macedonia, and stated that those developments were “alarming”.
Minister Szijjártó insisted that IS terrorists are returning to Europe “by the hundreds”, increasing the threat of terrorism. “This must be stopped,” he said.
Finally, the minister stated that the situation in the Western Balkans is becoming “more and more dramatic”. He argued that there are currently 25,000 illegal migrants in Bosnia-Herzegovina, while illegal migration to Greece has increased by one third.