Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has denied that Hungary was part of a group of 14 countries that were ready to sign a deal with Germany on speeding up the re-admittance process of asylum seekers deported from Germany.
PM Orbán said the media report was “the usual political bluff” and no such agreement had been reached.
The report suggested that German Chancellor Angela Merkel outlined a number of measures related to illegal migrants, and Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic were among 14 countries ready to sign an agreement alongside Belgium, France, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden.
The bilateral agreements would facilitate the return process for asylum seekers who have previously been registered in other countries.
Bertalan Havasi, PM Orbán’s press chief, told MTI that Hungary’s standpoint had remained unchanged since 2015, namely that not a single asylum seeker can enter Hungary after having set foot in Greece or another EU member state.
Meanwhile, Péter Szijjártó, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said an imminent meeting between PM Orbán and Chancellor Merkel would be of “exceptional significance”.
The foreign minister noted that Germany is Hungary’s biggest economic partner. The performance of Hungary’s economy is fundamentally determined by its ties to Germany, he said, adding that the European political situation related to migration increased the significance of this kind of meeting.