As the coronavirus began wreaking havoc all over the globe, and particularly in Europe, in 2020, public discourse shifted away from one of the most important issues that has defined much of the continent’s everyday life since 2015.
Yes, it’s illegal migration. And yes, it’s time again to speak candidly about the increasing pressure on our southern borders.
Recently, the border reports of the Hungarian Police have shown worrying signs, specifically a huge increase in illegal activity around our southern border areas – that’s the external border of Europe’s Schengen Area. Based on the latest statistics, both the number of captured human traffickers and the number of illegal border-crossing attempts have tripled in the first five months of 2021 compared to the same period last year.
Between January and May 20 in 2020, a total of 9,521 illegal border-crossing attempts were thwarted. The same figure for 2021 has more than tripled to 34,899. Similarly, in the same period in 2020, border police apprehended 110 individuals suspected of human trafficking, while in 2021 so far, this number stands at 321.
The elevated pressure on our borders sends a clear signal that the question of migration must be put back on top of the EU’s agenda. Many will recall that last December, the Commission submitted a proposal to bring in some 34 million migrants to become EU citizens. This, they said, would solve the migration situation.
Hungary, joined by the countries of Central Europe and the Mediterranean, has a different proposal. Let’s stop migration at our borders and bring help to where it’s needed most. As Prime Minister Orbán has been saying since day one of the migration crisis in 2015: “Let’s take the help there instead of bringing the trouble over here.”
By erecting a border fence along our borders with Serbia and Croatia – again, that’s not only our frontier, it’s an external border of Europe’s Schengen Area – Hungary showed the world in 2015 that it is possible to stop the influx of illegals on land. A few years later, under the leadership of former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, Italy effectively put an end to migration at sea. Other member states, and most EU institutions, however, seem hell-bent on turning the other way and letting these immigrants in.
It’s an issue that won’t be going away soon, and given the huge implications for security, economy and culture, it simply cannot be ignored.