BUDAPEST, Hungary (Sept. 7) – Hungary is preparing legislation that will enable it to deploy its army and para-military police on the country’s southern border with Serbia.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban made the announcement today as he detailed a package of measures he said protected both his nation and Europe’s collective Christian culture from being threatened “perhaps not by war, but by being overwhelmed”.
Mr Orban, speaking to a gathering of Hungarian diplomats in the capital Budapest, said he hoped this controversial move would succeed in “hermetically sealing” the border, with people crossing at official points only. He also questioned whether the flood of people now seeking sanctuary in Europe should be seen as immigrants, not as refugees, because they are seeking a “German life” and refuse asylum in the first EU country they reach.
“If they want to continue on from Hungary, it’s not because they are in danger, it’s because they want something else,” the prime minister said, adding that the migrants’ target was Germany and “a German life”, not physical safety.
As Breitbart London has reported, Hungary is seen as a gateway between Mediterranean ports in Italy and Greece that receive most of the inbound immigrants heading from the Middle East. The vast majority of those travel onwards through Serbia and Macedonia before reaching Hungary with the stated aim of moving to Germany and other wealthier western European countries.
Left unchecked, this inflow will place an impossible financial burden on the EU, Mr Orban said, endangering what he called Europe’s “Christian welfare states”. He has previously said the arrival of large numbers of mostly Muslim migrants posed a threat to Europe’s Christian culture and values.
Mr Orban also called on the EU to consider providing financial support to countries such as Turkey which are near to the conflict zones so that migrants did not move on.
“It’s absurd …. when the Germans say they will spend billions on providing for the new arrivals instead of giving the money to the countries around the crisis zone, where the (migrants) should be stopped in the first place,” he said.
“It would be better for everyone. They wouldn’t come here. It would cost less. And our approach couldn’t be called into question morally either.”
While Hungary would remain part of the EU’s passport-free ‘Schengen zone’, Mr Orban said discussion of a quota system to limit future movements was premature.
“As long as Europe cannot protect its external borders it makes no sense to discuss the fate of those flowing in,” he said, adding that he did not rule out a “fair” discussion of quotas at a later stage.
Meanwhile, Socratis Hasikos, Cyprus interior minister with added responsibility for migration policy, has told state radio his country would be willing to take 300 refugees but would want them to be Orthodox Christians. He said:
“We have already stated that 260, a maximum of 300, people can be taken in … everyone (EU member states) should pitch in.
“We would seek for them to be Orthodox Christians … it’s not an issue of being inhuman or not helping if we are called upon, but to be honest, yes, that’s what we would prefer.”