"Brussels should be financing the enhancement of the coast guards in North Africa instead of NGOs that cooperate with people smugglers and migrants," Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said in Tunis on Monday. Following his talks with Tunisian President Kais Saied, the foreign minister pointed out that
Hungary will be taking over the rotating presidency of the European Union in a period fraught with dangers such as the migration pressure faced by the continent.
He said that the situation is made worse by Brussels’s pro-migration policies, which, he added, are bad for both Europe and North Africa because illegal immigration poses a danger to both transit and destination countries
In order to successfully combat migration, the EU must cut off the funding of NGOs that cooperate with people smugglers and transport migrants,
he said. "These NGOs transport migrants across the Mediterranean, collude with people smugglers and bring illegal immigrants to Europe for money. Instead of funding these migrant-transporting NGOs, we should be financing the coastguards of North African countries," he explained.
The many tens or hundreds of millions of euros Brussels spends on supporting NGOs could be used to modernize the coast guards of countries in North Africa, thereby stopping people smugglers and reducing migration pressure,
– vélekedett.
he pointed out.
He also called on
Brussels to end its practice of issuing diktats to the African countries, and instead bring its relations with those countries back to the grounds of mutual respect.
Africa's population, he said, is on track to grow by an estimated 750 million in the next twenty years, and the continent is in need of significant economic development programs. If Europe abandoned Africa, it would face unmanageable humanitarian and security challenges in the coming years and decades, Peter Szijjarto warned.
We know full well how big a role the north African line of defense plays in Europe’s defense against migration,
he pointed out. "We therefore call on the European Union not to interfere in Tunisia’s domestic political affairs and destabilize Tunisia, but to cooperate with it in the fight against migration under a comprehensive partnership agreement and carry out economic developments," Hungary's foreign minister said.
Cover photo: Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto in Tunisia
