MEP Kinga Gál has called for the European Union to “protect its borders at sea and on land as expected by its voters.”
The EU should “prevent thousands of migrants from risking their lives at the Mediterranean Sea; it should make it clear that they cannot enter the continent illegally and it must eliminate the human smuggling rings,” Gál, an MEP from Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, said on Tuesday.
Gál made the remarks in response to comments made by EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, who said that the number of illegal immigrants had plummeted in Europe and there was no migration crisis on the continent.
Avramopoulos insisted that the EU was a community based on solidarity and humanitarian values, and called for sustainable and predictable mechanisms towards refugees so that those values are preserved.