Szijjártó: Austrian chancellorʼs remarks on Hungary mistaken
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann’s remarks about the border fence and the Hungaryʼs handling of refugees “donʼt correspond with the truth” Foreign Minister Péter Szijjárto told derStandard.at on Sunday. Hungary “has complied with all EU legislation on refugees; the construction of the border fence to Serbia was necessary to defend the EUʼs external border,” Szijjárto said.
Szijjárto was referring to an interview with Faymann published in österriech.at on Saturday.
Szijjárto said defending the border is of a higher priority than deciding on the migrant quotas for EU member states, which, he added, is not a good idea anyway.
Szijjártó could not tell how many refugees were granted asylum this year. He admitted that a vast majority of asylum seekers leave the country before the process is complete. He denied, however, that the fence that was erected on the Hungarian-Serbian border in August is not working, and defended the plan to reinforce the fence and build transit zones at the Serbian border, so that anyone whose application is rejected would be turned back to Serbia immediately.
Szijjártó also said that sending buses to pick up refugees that left Budapest to walk to the Austrian border on Friday and Saturday was a one-off measure, and Hungary will comply with EU regulations from this point forward. Szijjártó accused Germany of encouraging refugees not to cooperate, after Germany made an announcement that it would not apply the Dublin regulation to Syrians.
When a journalist questioned Szijjártó about solidarity, citing Germany as an example, the minister responded: “For us, solidarity means that we defend our borders in order to take the pressure off us all.”
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