- Title: Hungary’s Orban reinforces rejection of EU "dictate" in migration policy
- Date: 21st November 2016
- Summary: NIS, SERBIA (NOVEMBER 21, 2016) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** EXTERIOR OF VENUE FOR MEETING BETWEEN HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER, VIKTOR ORBAN (LEFT), AND SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER, ALEKSANDAR VUCIC HUNGARIAN AND SERBIAN FLAGS ON LAMP POST GOVERNMENT SESSION IN PROGRESS HUNGARIAN PRIME, MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN, (LEFT) AND SERBIAN PRIME MINISTER, ALEKSANDAR VUCIC, SEATED MEDIA MEETING IN PROGRESS ORBAN MEETING IN PROGRESS VUCIC AND ORBAN ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE MEDIA NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER, VIKTOR ORBAN, SAYING (ACCORDING TO OFFICIAL TRANSLATION): "Hungary will do everything to return every migrant from Europe to their home country and Hungary will do everything to prevent anyone from entering and staying (in the country) illegally, violating Hungarian laws. We want to control the situation, we want to govern our lives and we do not accept the dictate from Brussels that tells us that we have to live with someone or another." MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (Hungarian) HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER, VIKTOR ORBAN, SAYING (ACCORDING TO OFFICIAL TRANSLATION): "Life changes in countries where migrants arrive in masses. Maybe not in a day, but in a few years it will and our children and grandchildren will ask us: why have you allowed our homeland to change, why have you allowed Europe to change?" ORBAN AND VUCIC SHAKING HANDS MEDIA FAMILY PHOTO
- Embargoed: 6th December 2016 13:44
- Keywords: Viktor Orban Hungary migration asylum EU migrant quotas
- Location: NIS, SERBIA
- City: NIS, SERBIA
- Country: Serbia
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00159E0IMF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Hungary's anti-immigration Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned on Monday (November 21) that he has no intention of allowing migrants to enter his country despite EU's refugee-resettlement plans.
"Hungary will do everything to return every migrant from Europe to his home country and Hungary will do everything to prevent anyone from entering and staying (in the country) illegally, violating Hungarian laws," he said in Nis, a Serbian city 250 kilometres southeast of Belgrade.
"We want to control the situation, we want to govern our lives and we do not accept the dictate from Brussels that tells us that we have to live with someone or another," the 53 year-old conservative leader, who emerged as head of the anti-migration front within the European Union in 2015, added.
Orban says deciding whether to accept migrants is a matter of national sovereignty. Last year he responded to the influx of migrants by sealing Hungary's southern borders with a razor-wire fence and thousands of army and police. He says Hungary, with its Christian roots, does not want to take in Muslims in large numbers, and that they pose a security risk.
"Life changes in countries where migrants arrive in masses. Maybe not in a day, but in a few years it will and our children and grandchildren will ask us: why have you allowed our homeland to change, why have you allowed Europe to change?" he argued in Nis after a meeting with Serbian fellow conservative Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.
Though the so-called Balkan migration route has officially been closed since March, migrants continue trickling.
Instead of thousands arriving each day hundreds come on a route which now runs through Bulgaria after borders with Greece and Macedonia have been sealed.
Closed borders further down the route of their intended trek have created a backlog of around 6,500 people, who Serbian authorities are hard-pressed to deal with as winter arrives.
According to international aid organizations, Hungary now allows only around 100 people to pass its fenced-off border and expels all those caught trespassing back to Serbia.
Later on Monday, a contingent of Hungarian, Slovak and Czech police officers are to join Serbia's combined police-military units patrolling the border with Bulgaria in a bid to reduce the influx of migrants arriving from the east. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
