Brussels Is Forcing Migrant Ghettos on Hungary

Hungarians reject the mass resettlement of illegal immigrants in the country, Bence Retvari says.

Hungarian Internal Affairs Parliamentary State Secretary Bence Retvari viewing the service vehicle damaged by illegal migrants (Photo: MTI/Zsolt Szigetvary)

"It is unacceptable for Hungary that the European Union is seeking to impose mandates on the country to open its gates, initiate immigration procedures and thereby allow practically unlimited numbers of illegal migrants into the EU," the parliamentary state secretary of the Ministry of Interior said on Sunday morning's Kossuth Radio program. Bence Retvari said that, according to an implementation plan adopted in the summer, Hungary would have to deal with more than a quarter of all applications submitted by illegal migrants. This is a disproportionately high amount, and

would lead to the development of precisely the migrant ghettos the country wants to avoid.

He stressed the need to build up the application processing capacity, which would have to be increased to fourfold by 2028, and the requirement to ensure application submissions thereafter.

"We have been following the same policy since 2015: we comply with Hungarian and EU legislation, which clearly states that borders must be protected and that crossing the green border undocumented is illegal," he said. The politician pointed out that, by contrast, Hungary's costs of two billion euros or 800 billion forints to protect the border are not being reimbursed, and furthermore, according to the incredibly disproportionate and unjust penalty imposed by the European Court of Justice, Hungary would have to pay 78 billion forints (nearly 1 billion euros) and an additional one million euros a day in fines. "This is unequivocally not a consequence of the legal proceedings but of political pressure tactics and blackmailing of the country to allow in migrants and relinquish its pro-peace stance," he stated, stressing that Hungary refuses to give in, and is seeking a solution to assert its claims with the help of experts in international law.

"Hungarians, and the eastern countries of the EU in general, completely reject the idea of mass settlement of illegal migrants, but if Brussels really wants mass immigration, Hungary will also look at the possibility of putting incomers on planes near the Hungarian border and having them land in Brussels,"

he said. Bence Retvari recalled that the essence of the Schengen rules was to make Europe internally traversable, but this achievement has taken a "severely blow" with internal border controls being re-introduced in multiple places as a result of migration, because the external borders are left unprotected by the EU. The attack in England showed that migrants who settled here are not integrated into European society, and neither are their children, who are committing the same crimes. So there is no integration based on cultural identity in Europe.

According to the parliamentary state secretary, illegal migration not only has a negative impact on public security but also on the EU's competitiveness, as internal border controls make it increasingly difficult to uphold the rhetoric that internal borders are freely permeable. "This is no longer merely an inconvenience for tourists, but also means an economic disadvantage for those who trade and transport goods within the EU," he said.

Bence Retvari considers it terrible that due to liberal, pro-migration political pressure, all previous guarantees, security systems, Schengen rules, the Dublin asylum procedure and all other previous EU legislation that were created to protect the EU are now being interpreted as quite the opposite in the Commission, in the Court of Justice and in other EU bodies. "The logic of letting in people who have no legal right to stay and then trying to deport them has not panned out over the last ten years," he said, adding that

the EU fails to implement nine out of every ten expulsion decisions, or only eight if successful, and there is no guarantee that deportees will not return.

The politician also spoke about the extension of Hungary's National Card program to Russian and Belarusian citizens. He stressed that the entry rules have not changed, those coming to Hungary from Russia or Belarus for work purposes are subject to the same public security and national security screening as everyone else. The only change is that anyone receiving a visa and allowed entry in Hungary does not need to apply for a separate work permit, he added.

Cover photo: Hungarian Internal Affairs Parliamentary State Secretary Bence Retvari viewing the service vehicle damaged by illegal migrants (Photo: MTI/Zsolt Szigetvary)