The European Union would introduce the mandatory distribution of migrants among Member States, and if the relevant legislative process goes through, Member States will have no say in who will live in their territories, Bence Rétvári, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, said in a statement to MTI in Luxembourg on Thursday.
The state secretary made the statement after EU interior ministers adopted a Council position on the EU's asylum reform by a majority decision.
The document adopted, which contains a general approach, foresees that "through an EU distribution mechanism, it will essentially be the illegal migrants themselves or the smugglers who transport them to Europe who will decide on who will live in Europe".
He stressed that Hungary has opposed this proposal all along, together with Poland.
He added that part of the proposal is that if a Member State does not accept migrants, it will have to pay the European Union a sum of around 8 million forints per migrant.
The state secretary said it was disproportionate that the position sets out the proportion of the burden borne by each Member State for border protection or border procedures.
"Although Hungary is not a frontline country according to European decisions, the burden has nevertheless been placed on Hungary, with 28.3 percent of all border procedures being carried out by Hungarian authorities. Hungary has to provide almost one third of the total border management capacity in the European Union, and this is because the Hungarian authorities keep precise records of how many illegal migrants are returned," he said.
Bence Rétvári said he could not report any progress on EU funding for border protection costs, while Hungary had spent more than €1.5 billion on building up this capacity.
"We have repeatedly asked the EU to contribute to the costs of external border protection. If we are talking about solidarity, it does not only mean distributing migrants among themselves, but also those who are trying to distribute as few people as possible”, he stressed.
The state secretary said that the proposal was dangerous because it contained facilitations and leniencies, and that this would certainly encourage illegal migration.
He also said that the procedural process of adopting the Council's position adopted on Thursday was "a prime example of double standards and a mockery of European values".
According to Hungary's position, the European Council, which brings together the leaders of the EU Member States, has the right to decide on asylum reforms, but the Council of Interior Ministers ignored this.
He added that on Thursday, ministers voted on proposals that had been circulated a few minutes, or at most half an hour, earlier in the council meeting, and that "pro-migration governments" had put pressure on other Member States to accept the proposal.
"Hungary is constantly being questioned on the rule of law, while at the Council meeting we saw unimaginable procedural processes being used to decide on migration issues that will determine future generations," said Bence Rétvári.
Source: MTI - Hungarian News Agency
