June 19, 2015
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Hungary's plan to build a 4-meter (13-foot) high fence on the border with Serbia to stop the flow of migrants will also protect Europe, Hungary's prime minister said Friday.
Viktor Orban said that "if a question is complicated, choose the easiest solution," so in the case of the migrants, "the state will defend its external borders." Hungary has received more than 53,000 asylum requests this year, compared with fewer than 43,000 in 2014 and 2,150 in 2012.
Orban was in the Slovak capital, Bratislava, to meet with Central European leaders and French President Francois Hollande. He said Hungary considers it a state obligation to defend its borders and will not seek help for the task.
Serbia is adamantly opposed to the fence. The governments of Hungary and Serbia are set to hold a joint meeting in Budapest on July 1. The fence along the Hungary-Serbia border "cannot and will not happen," Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said.
"I will talk to Victor Orban, even though I know that he promised (a fence) to the public, and that he is a hard politician," Vucic said in Belgrade. "I will plead and ask in the name of Serbia that that wall is not built, and that we try to find other political solutions, because Serbia will not build any walls toward anyone in the region."
Most of the migrants reaching Hungary from Serbia come north on the so-called Balkan route, often after having passed through Turkey, Greece or Bulgaria. Hassan, a 23-year-old refugee from Sierra Leone who spoke with The Associated Press on Thursday in the southern Hungarian village of Asotthalom minutes after crossing over from Serbia, said he had left his home in April 2014, spent several months in Turkey, traveled by sea to Greece and had mostly walked since.
The United Nations said it was "deeply concerned" about Hungary's fence project. "Such harsh border enforcement measures may also force migrants to adopt more risky routes and modes of transport, putting them at greater risk of abuse by traffickers and smugglers," said Cecile Pouilly, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Orban said preparations for the construction of the fence have begun and the details, including costs and the route, will be decided at Wednesday's government Cabinet meeting. He said that in the 1990s, Hungary sheltered refugees from the wars in the Balkans regardless of ethnicity or nationality, but there needs to be a distinction between those fleeing war and those fleeing poverty.
"There is a know-how in Hungary about how to differentiate between a refugee running for his life and an economic migrant," Orban said. "The phenomenon now faced by Europe and Hungary is essentially the problem of economic immigration."
Orban said that more migrants had arrived in Hungary this year than in any other European country, "and we'd like Europe to be clear about the magnitude of the problem."
Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this report.
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Hungary's plan to build a 4-meter (13-foot) high fence on the border with Serbia to stop the flow of migrants will also protect Europe, Hungary's prime minister said Friday.
Viktor Orban said that "if a question is complicated, choose the easiest solution," so in the case of the migrants, "the state will defend its external borders." Hungary has received more than 53,000 asylum requests this year, compared with fewer than 43,000 in 2014 and 2,150 in 2012.
Orban was in the Slovak capital, Bratislava, to meet with Central European leaders and French President Francois Hollande. He said Hungary considers it a state obligation to defend its borders and will not seek help for the task.
Serbia is adamantly opposed to the fence. The governments of Hungary and Serbia are set to hold a joint meeting in Budapest on July 1. The fence along the Hungary-Serbia border "cannot and will not happen," Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said.
"I will talk to Victor Orban, even though I know that he promised (a fence) to the public, and that he is a hard politician," Vucic said in Belgrade. "I will plead and ask in the name of Serbia that that wall is not built, and that we try to find other political solutions, because Serbia will not build any walls toward anyone in the region."
Most of the migrants reaching Hungary from Serbia come north on the so-called Balkan route, often after having passed through Turkey, Greece or Bulgaria. Hassan, a 23-year-old refugee from Sierra Leone who spoke with The Associated Press on Thursday in the southern Hungarian village of Asotthalom minutes after crossing over from Serbia, said he had left his home in April 2014, spent several months in Turkey, traveled by sea to Greece and had mostly walked since.
The United Nations said it was "deeply concerned" about Hungary's fence project. "Such harsh border enforcement measures may also force migrants to adopt more risky routes and modes of transport, putting them at greater risk of abuse by traffickers and smugglers," said Cecile Pouilly, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Orban said preparations for the construction of the fence have begun and the details, including costs and the route, will be decided at Wednesday's government Cabinet meeting. He said that in the 1990s, Hungary sheltered refugees from the wars in the Balkans regardless of ethnicity or nationality, but there needs to be a distinction between those fleeing war and those fleeing poverty.
"There is a know-how in Hungary about how to differentiate between a refugee running for his life and an economic migrant," Orban said. "The phenomenon now faced by Europe and Hungary is essentially the problem of economic immigration."
Orban said that more migrants had arrived in Hungary this year than in any other European country, "and we'd like Europe to be clear about the magnitude of the problem."
Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this report.
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