The European Union could not handle the migration crisis, and eight years after the crisis the European Parliament is still talking about the need to increase European solidarity and help with the placement and distribution of immigrants, an MEP of ruling Fidesz said in Strasbourg on Wednesday.
In an EP debate on Tuesday on Italy’s recent declaration of a state of emergency over migration, most MEPs were “still forcing the same bad, tired methods which were clearly proven inadequate to solve the problem years ago”, Balazs Hidveghi told MTI.
If a certain method is proven not to work in fixing a given problem, then it is time to try something new, Hidveghi said. The fact that the same things are being said eight years after the start of the migration crisis shows that the EU could not handle the migration crisis and has been trying the wrong methods in the recent period, he added.
The MEP said the changes to the EU’s methods in managing the crisis should start with securing the bloc’s borders. It should also be made clear, he said, that the EU will not tolerate illegal entry onto its territory.
“Anyone who attempts this has to be immediately repatriated to where they came from,” Hidveghi said. “This has to be the starting point,” he said, adding that unless such a policy is implemented, more and more illegal migrants would make their way to Europe.
He said most migrants coming to the EU were not refugees but rather economic migrants “taking advantage of Europe’s weakness and that member states don’t even observe or enforce their own laws”.
Hidveghi said the EU should help Italy protect its borders and help member states with repatriating migrants.
Once borders are protected and the laws respected, the EU can discuss helping Africa and member states’ national regulation of migration, he said.
Hidveghi said he would propose that the EP on Thursday postpone a vote on its position on a new asylum pact, arguing that several MEPs believed it makes “incorrect assumptions” and “forces the wrong solutions”.
He said Europe should help genuine refugees as Hungary is doing in the case of Ukrainian refugees. But illegal economic migration has to be clearly distinguished from this and firm measures should be taken against it, he said.
