After the border inspection, the Prime Minister told journalists that the fence was good and strong, but there may be a need for more people, in which case people will be directed there. The weak point is Brussels which keeps saying that those who want to leave Afghanistan should be let in, he added, stressing that this is “betrayal”.
He said thousands of people are working here so that everyone in the interior of Europe can feel safe. Brussels, however, is betraying Hungary and the European people. Here “we are protecting the security of the whole of Europe,” and it is to be hoped that we will succeed in stopping the plan to bring here people from Afghanistan, he said, adding that help must be taken where there is trouble, rather than brining trouble to the territory of Hungary, the Czech Republic or the European Union.
He said a border section of the full length of 175 kilometres is protected with a fence, while half of the Hungarian-Croatian border section is also protected with physical obstacles.
From this direction in just a few months in 2015, more than 400,000 people entered without any paperwork and permission – “it was nothing short of an invasion” – with reference to the fact that they were invited to Germany by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he recalled.
He pointed out that public security became almost untenable, conditions were unbearable, and this is why they decided to build the fence.
He stressed that if one wants to, one is able to protect the border, and in the EU it is the will, not the ability that is missing.
Mr Orbán said the fence is being protected by 4,500 people, this is one of the largest items of expenditure in the budget of the police. With this “we’re not receiving any kind of special assistance” from the EU, only that which all other Member States do, he added.
He said this is also an external Schengen border, and when the trouble was at its height, the political and physical support received from the Czech Republic and the Visegrád Four meant a great deal. We are happy to receive the Czech Prime Minister’s offer to provide assistance should the need arise again, he observed.
The Prime Minister highlighted that Serbia is on the other side of the fence, but there should be no fence here because Serbia should be a member of the European Union and the Schengen Area, and we should protect our borders in the South, not here. If the EU, if Brussels bureaucrats cared about security, Serbia should already have been admitted, and then we all would be in greater security, he stated.
In answer to a question, Mr Orbán also said if the fence had not been built, in the past few years several million migrants would have entered the territory of the Schengen Area uncontrolled, the number of acts of terrorism and crimes would have increased manifold, and in Germany women could feel less safe. An influx is still ongoing, and if the fence was dismantled, tomorrow tens of thousands, next week hundreds of thousands and in a month a million people would come through, he said.
He pointed out that these migrants are not refugees, they just want a better life.
He said migration is not a human right, everyone has a country, and that country must be kept in order, made liveable and able to develop. No one can demand that everything that many generations in our countries have worked hard for be reduced to nothing with the influx of many millions of migrants, he said, adding that we can, however, help to improve conditions in their countries, “we’re ready for that”.
Andrej Babis stated that the EU is concerning itself with a great many pointless things such as the quotas, instead of which they proposed other solutions. Action must be taken against people smugglers, and help must be given outside Europe, that is where the wave of migrants must be stopped, he pointed out.
He said he came to visit the border in order to see also in practice why the fence was erected and what its significance lies in; in 2015 when 400,000 migrants came here, Prime Minister Orbán was waiting to see what Brussels would do, but nothing happened, he said, adding that when the fence was erected, this was the only properly functioning Schengen border, and the reason why it was built here is that this is the shortest route for migrants to Germany.
He observed that there are some who say that there are no migrants. However, this year the number of migrants and also the number of people smugglers has tripled. People smugglers charge EUR 3,500 a head to help migrants reach Germany, he said.
According to the Czech Prime Minister, opinions are changing slowly in Europe, but more countries should be involved in the Schengen Area and we should also place more emphasis on the protection of our sea borders.
