Hungary has hit back at The New York Times after it criticised the Central European country’s robust response to the large-scale illegal immigration which followed the onset of Europe’s migrant crisis.
Dr. Zoltán Kovács, Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Relations in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government, wrote that the newspaper’s editors “really still don’t get it” after they accused Hungary of making the migrant crisis worse.
The NYT claimed it was “incumbent on Europe” to continue “making room for those who reach its shores”, and insisted the “burden must be shared” — a clear reference to the European Union’s attempts to impose compulsory migrant quotas on its member-states, which Hungary has resisted.
“It’s good to know that the NYT editors believe it’s ‘incumbent on Europe’ to solve the migration crisis, but … they continue to show just how much they don’t understand,” Dr. Kovács noted.
“Admittedly, it’s not easy to grasp this ‘indisputably difficult problem’ from the comforts of Midtown Manhattan,” he quipped.
“Strong and secure borders are not making the migration crisis worse,” the historian explained. “On the contrary! It’s weak, undefended borders that are aggravating the crisis by creating a ‘pull factor,’ encouraging migrants to set out on the dangerous journey.
“It’s the failure to secure the borders that has fueled an industry of human trafficking that preys on migrants.
“And it’s the failure to secure the external borders that has led to hundreds of thousands of migrants illegally entering the territory of the EU.”
Dr. Kovács also took aim at “what the NYT casually refers to as international law and European values; language that appeals to the ‘limousine liberal’ readership of the Times” — echoing similar comments by Breitbart News Network’s Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon recently.
“There is no international law, no European treaty that gives Brussels the authority to decide on immigration,” Kovács asserted. “Only Hungary has the right to decide on who gets to live in Hungary.”
Since erecting its fences and taking a decision to detain all migrants until the validity of their refugee status can be assessed — after it was discovered that most of the Paris terrorists had passed through Hungary, hidden amongst the wider influx — illegal migration has collapsed, falling from hundreds of thousands to pre-crisis levels.
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