Hungarian Foreign Minister Labels EU Border Agency a ‘Travel Agency’ For Migrants

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has labelled the European Union’s border agency Frontex a “travel agency”, stating that Member States should protect the external borders.

The Hungarian minister called the European Union (EU) “aimless” on the topic of migration stating in comments reported by Die Welt: “Frontex is a travel agency. Rather, those countries that have an external EU border should also protect them.”

On migration, Szijjártó said that Hungary “pursues the policy of common sense, even if we are criticised for it. There are still unfair criticisms of Hungary and distorted representations of domestic developments. But we note with approval that European approval has grown in favour of our position on the refugee issue.”

Earlier this week, Hungary faced the ongoing Article 7 procedure which could see the country stripped of voting rights and sanctioned due to various allegations including a lack of press freedom, corruption, and rule of law issues.

“It is a fact that the current rule of law is characterised by double standards. Budapest is criticised for alleged violations of the constitution, while Finland, for example, does not even have a constitutional court,” Szijjártó said.

He went on to add: “We have experienced in Hungary that whenever leftists or liberals do not win, the result is defamed as undemocratic. Obviously it does not matter to our critics that we win election after election in an unobjectionable manner. The two-thirds majority did not fall to us in the lottery!”

Szijjártó is not alone on having made negative comments about Frontex. Populist National Rally leader Marine Le Pen has also been critical of the agency stating in May that “the EU is a toxic accelerator of massive immigration and Frontex is the reception, support and distribution agency”.

Former Austrian Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache, who resigned due to scandal earlier this year, went even further, calling Frontex a “people-trafficking organisation”.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com