Hungarian PM argues for reinforcing EU's external border

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has announced a controversial six-point plan to stop refugee influx into Europe.

“For us the first question that should be addressed is the protection of borders,” Orban, a right-wing nationalist, told a press conference in Germany’s southern Bavaria region. He was accompanied by Bavarian President Horst Seehofer.

As the first element of his six-point plan, Orban proposed sending EU forces to the Greek border to stop refugee crossings.

“We should win the support of Greece for leaving protection of its external borders to European countries which are prepared to do that,” Orban said.

He argued that economic migrants and asylum seekers escaping civil war, or persecution should be separated from each other before they already enter the Schengen area.

Orban demanded rendering a list of “countries of safe origin”, to accelerate the asylum examination procedures, and stressed that this list should be decided at a European level.

“Any EU member state or candidate country should be automatically included in this list,” he argued.

Orban suggested that 1 percent of expenditures by each member state be saved and transferred to a new fund to manage the refugee crisis, thus, he argued, creating new financial resources amounting to 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion).

The Hungarian leader also called for a special dialogue and partnership with countries like Turkey and Russia to address the challenges posed by the growing refugee crisis.

As the final element of his six-point plan, Orban proposed worldwide quotas, in order to redistribute refugees among all states.

Orban announced his proposal ahead of an extraordinary summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Wednesday night.

Before heading to the summit in Brussels, Orban attended a party conference of the Bavarian Christian Socialist Union (CSU), which also demands strict legislation on asylum and favors restrictive immigration policies.

Orban has been widely criticized in Europe for his harsh policies against asylum seekers who try to cross Hungary, and his opposition to resettlement of refugees across the EU member states.

The Hungarian leader also drew criticism for his claim that Muslim refugees pose a threat to the Christian character of Europe.

More than 500,000 migrants and refugees have entered the EU this year, according to EU border agency Frontex, nearly double the figure for the whole of 2014, when 280,000 arrived.

The largest national group was from Syria, where refugees have fled the four-year civil war.
 www.aa.com.tr
23/9/15