Zoltán Kovács, the state secretary for government communications and international relations, said the government’s next National Consultation survey to be launched in the near future will again address the issue of migration.
In a video posted on Facebook, Kovács said the EU’s approach to illegal migration has not changed since 2015 while the issue has become particularly topical now “when a new migration package has been pushed through and adopted in Brussels” despite the fact that arranging the movement of migrants is now in the hands of radical groups. The new migration pact includes renewed provisions on the migrant redistribution mechanism proposed earlier and provisions on new procedures, he said. New rules would involve having to receive illegal migrants before an assessment is conducted on their asylum request, he added. “This would lead to the emergence of migrant ghettos at places where such ghettos have never existed before, something that we have consistently rejected,” Kovács said, reiterating the government’s position that “illegal migrants must not be allowed to enter Hungary”, but “they must be stopped at the border”. “We need very tight, clear-cut and rigorous border control to prevent people from entering European territory without getting checked first,” he added and asked Hungarians to give their opinion on the matter in the survey.