Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has called for swift action to be taken on migration and border protection and has called for European unity.
Addressing the Budapest Migration Conference organized by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium at the weekend, PM Orbán said we need to act now. “If European policymakers fail to make decisions immediately, then it will be impossible to stop later what has already begun,” he said.
The prime minister cited UN data indicating that the population of Africa will rise by half a billion people in 13 years and the gap between the quality of life in Africa and Europe will widen. “Migration pressure from Africa will surely grow,” he said, and urged help to be given to Africans in their home countries rather than in Europe.
PM Orbán stressed that the approach to migration by the eastern and western parts of Europe must be reconciled now because later this would become impossible to achieve.
The prime minister said that EU leaders and structures are not up to the task of resolving the problem of migration, adding that he agreed with Nicolas Sárközy, the former French president, who argued that the European Commission should be stripped of its powers over migration policymaking and border protection and a body of Schengen area interior ministers should be established to address the issue.