After meeting the Austrian chancellor and the Serbian president in Budapest, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said illegal migration is becoming a bigger and bigger problem because no one is paying proper attention to the "alarming numbers and facts" of the matter.
According to MTI, the prime minister told a press conference that the meeting was the first in a series involving leaders of countries severely affected by illegal migration. “All three [countries] suffer from illegal migration,” he said, adding that these efforts “consume immense energy, manpower and huge amounts of money.” “At the same time, we’re far from satisfied with the situation that has emerged.” Referring to the war in Ukraine, high energy prices and sanctions, PM Orbán said attention was being diverted away from the issue of migration to “other burning problems”. The aim of today’s meeting, he said, was to confront the situation and work out appropriate measures, adding that Hungary was in a “special situation” owing to migration problems stemming from two directions. He noted that more than one million refugees have come to Hungary from Ukraine, while the border was “under constant siege” from the south. PM Orbán insisted that EU policy was “encouraging migration”. War, sanctions, the global economic downturn and food problems all added pressures in terms of illegal migration, he said.