Barna Pál Zsigmond, a state secretary of the European Union affairs ministry, said Brussels is “punishing” Hungary because it is protecting its border.
Zsigmond said Brussels wants to force Hungary to accept 7,000 migrants a year, noting the European Commission’s recently issued implementing decision on capacity for asylum procedures under the new migration pact. The decision requires Hungary to provide 7,716 permanent reception places, 25.7% of the total, while it must undertake over 15,000 border procedures in the first year, he said. The number of procedures could rise to three or four times the number of reception places in the following years, he added. He said Hungary’s quota was a multiple of the French or German quotas and even more than those in Bulgaria and Greece, along the Western Balkans migrant route. “It is unacceptable and completely irrational that just two member states, Hungary and Italy, should be responsible for over half of the reception capacity on the EU frontiers,” he added. He said the quotas were based on statistics showing illegal migration over the past three years, adding that the formula “punished” member states that had protected their border from illegal migrants and reported their numbers to the EU. He said the measure was a “cynical attempt by the pro-war, Sorosist left-wing in Brussels” to keep politically motivated migration processes in place, and he affirmed Hungary’s position on protecting its borders. “We will not allow Hungary to become a country of migrants,” he said.