Following talks with his C5 counterparts, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said European politicians should refrain from statements strengthening migration pressure.
After meeting the foreign ministers of Austria, Czechia, Slovakia and Slovenia in Vienna on Wednesday, Minister Szijjártó told a joint press conference that central Europe was at the focal point of two crises, the war from the east and migration from the south. “It’s very complicated to address such challenges … especially if we don’t get any kind of support, or we don’t get any funds that should be ours,” he said. Also, “there is a totally new situation created by the fact that the smugglers and migrants are using automatic rifles.” Western politicians’ calls for a scheme on the distribution of migrants inspire migration and strengthen migration pressure, he said. He invited those politicians to visit Hungary’s southern borders, and “see how unbearable the life of the people in the neighborhood of the border is”. The migration crisis can be solved only by applying international law, which says that asylum seekers have the right to stay in the first safe country they reach, he said. The people trying to enter Hungary are not asylum seekers, having traversed several safe countries, he said.