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.
‘The real crisis is neither at the US-Mexican nor at the European borders. Instead, it stems from Central America. Crime, violence, corruption, and economic devastation in the region have propelled people to the border. In terms of Europe, it is the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle East that have propelled their citizens to flee inhumane situations.’
Apart from causing tragic suffering for the locals and posing a major threat to foreign nationals living in Sudan, the civil war is unfortunately also expected to result in an increase in the number of people trying to enter the EU illegally.
‘Over the past decades, the number of fences at the EU borders has risen from 0 to 19.’
The number of successfully or unsuccessfully attempted illegal crossings at EU borders reached 330,000 in 2022, the highest number since 2015. Meanwhile, Denmark and the United Kingdom are pursuing plans to relocate illegal immigrants to Rwanda.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the freedom of movement of European citizens, which is so essential to the European project, is now in danger in the face of the worsening migration crisis.
Minister Szijjártó underscored that he is glad there are still politicians like Matteo Salvini in Europe. He said Salvini, whom he described as an old friend, is one of ‘those who are able to think rationally about migration’.