The Chief Security Adviser to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary has warned that the three-pronged assault on the European Union’s external borders at Greece, Italy, and Spain is intensifying.
At a press conference in Budapest, György Bakondi cited figures which suggest that “[O]n average, 70 to 73 immigrants are arriving in Greece from Turkey every day” — despite an expensive deal with the Islamist government in Ankara to reduce the inflow.
Of approximately 3.1 million migrants in the west Asian country, Bakondi indicated that “42 per cent would set out for Europe immediately” if the opportunity presented itself.
In Italy, the crisis is more acute, with the security chief indicating that at least 95,086 migrants — mainly from sub-Saharan Africa rather than Syria or Libya — had arrived in the Mediterranean country by July 2017. Bakondi has previously highlighted the role of NGOs in assisting people-smugglers to bring migrants to Italy.
Finally, he noted that Spain, which has struggled to prevent criminals from bringing illegal drugs and tobacco to its shores from North Africa for years, is also seeing a significant upswing in illegal immigration.
Some 9,507 migrants entered its territory either by smuggler boat or by violently forcing the border at the exclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in the first six months of 2017 — a significant increase from the previous year.
With regard to how the migrant crisis might be tackled, Mr. Bakondi reiterated his government’s longstanding position that “Hungary does not agree either with the relocation of migrants, or with the opening of the borders”.
Underlining the security chief’s opposition to the EU’s quota plan — inspired by billionaire open borders activist George Soros — Prime Minister Orbán’s official spokesman Dr. Zoltán Kovács wrote that “the right of citizens to secure borders and safety comes before non-existent ‘human rights of asylum seekers and migrants’.
“It is not a human right to refuse cooperation with the receiving country’s immigration authorities,” he asserted.
“It is not a human right to disappear before an asylum request is decided. It is not a human right to attack border protection police officers with stones.”
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