Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, speaking in Granada at a meeting of European Union member state leaders, asserted that there is no hope for an agreement among the heads of state and government on the issue of migration.
According to data provided by the Slovak Ministry of the Interior, the number of illegal migrants arriving in Slovakia through the Western Balkans route began to significantly increase in August of last year. From the beginning of this year up until now, nearly 40,000 illegal immigrants have entered the country, which is 11 times more than during the same period last year.
The Hungarian foreign minister emphasized that despite all efforts, global terrorism remains more severe than ever, claiming 6,700 lives last year due to various attacks. He opined that one of the reasons for that is that terrorism and illegal migration create a kind of ‘vicious circle’.
Groups of 140–180 individuals have been attempting to cross the border fence using ladders in the areas of Ásotthalom and Mórahalom, with human traffickers waiting on the Hungarian side, ready to move those who manage to cross towards the West. ‘The police and border patrol units are engaged in proper combat,’ according to the PM’s Chief Security Advisor György Bakondi.
The conservative Prime Minister of Italy is aiming to ease the migration pressure on Europe by having the migrants’ transit countries and countries of origin more involved in managing the migration flow. She has already made some headway on this front.
Another summit of the intergovernmental cooperation between Austria, Hungary, and Serbia took place on 7 July in Vienna, Austria. Apart from the heads of state and government, the three nations’ ministers of foreign affairs, and domestic and law enforcement leaders also took part in the conference, held at the Austrian Chancellor’s residence. The Vienna Summit was organised in the wake of Hungary and Poland officially objecting to the migration package at the European Commission’s 30 June session.
The root cause of the riots result from the French state having been unable to eliminate social inequalities and ethnic differences for decades, the panellists at a Migration Research Institute discussion agreed.
In 2017, the recent France riots were seemingly foreshadowed by the Foreign Minister of the UAE, who said: ‘There will come a day that we will see far more radical extremists and terrorists coming out of Europe because of lack of decision making, trying to be politically correct, or assuming that they know the Middle East and they know Islam and others far better than we do. I’m sorry, but that’s pure ignorance.’
It appears that the Visegrád Four cooperation is once again revitalising itself along the lines of common interests. The green transition and its impact on industrial investment in Central Europe, European security or illegal migration are issues that have prompted the V4 countries, and the Poles and the Hungarians in particular, to once again join forces.
According to Bence Rétvári, the voluntary quota introduced earlier has proved unsuccessful, so Brussels now wants to forcefully distribute migrants. He added that if Hungary refuses to comply, it may face penalties, referred to as ‘financial contributions’ in the proposal. This would mean that the Hungarian government would have to pay some eight million Hungarian forints per migrant that it is unwilling to accept.