Mass and illegal migration in Europe poses a huge public security risk, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior stated on Tuesday in Budapest.
At the farewell party of the 80th Hungarian police contingent leaving for North Macedonia, Bence Rétvári thanked the policemen who are leaving for foreign service for helping to stop the "never seen, never thought before" mass of people who want to come to Western Europe illegally on the Western Balkans route, and thereby protecting Hungary's interests.
He emphasized that the Hungarian police will not meet people who want to get to Europe by following the law, but will already take the first step towards the continent illegally.
Bence Rétvári explained that there is an increase in illegal immigration, because in 2022, the police prevented about 270,000 attempts to cross the border at the southern border, which means about 750 attempts per day.
He said that in connection with illegal migration, the solution would be if hundreds of thousands of migrants could be stopped at the most remote border section - for example, the Greek-Turkish border.
In this way, "the whole of Europe could be a safer continent". "Unfortunately, this decision was not made by the leaders of the European Union," said the state secretary.
He believed that if the external borders of the EU are not protected, then the internal borders will be rebuilt, while the economic advantage of the union is the permeability of the internal borders.
Bence Rétvári called it regrettable that the EU only contributed to less than two percent of the 1.5 billion euro cost of Hungarian border protection.
The politician also drew attention to the fact that illegal migrants are becoming more and more aggressive and that more and more alarming phenomena are visible at the Hungarian border. In 2022, migrants committed aggressive attacks against border guards or border protection equipment in 485 cases, and migrants and human smugglers are increasingly carrying weapons or objects that appear to be weapons. According to his information, weapons were seen in 51 cases of illegal migration participants, shots were fired on the Serbian side of the border in 104 cases, and a series of shots were heard on 24 occasions.
Bence Rétvári explained that dozens of Hungarian border guards were injured in the attacks, but fortunately there were no serious injuries or deaths. This also shows that the Hungarian police must be adequately equipped and given a broad license.
The state secretary also reminded that Hungary has provided assistance for the defense of the border with North Macedonia for the seventh year, and that the Hungarian police have also performed border protection tasks in Slovenia and Serbia. He emphasized that Hungary, Serbia and Austria cooperate "very closely" in the fight against illegal migration.
Bence Rétvári referred to the fact that hundreds of cars were set on fire in France on New Year's Eve, and hundreds of rioters with a migration background were arrested in Germany as a consequence of illegal migration.
According to his summary, mass and illegal migration poses a huge public security and terrorism-related risk in Europe, which also brings social problems to the fore and causes social tensions.
The activities of those going to the foreign service can therefore prevent or reduce a wide variety of adverse consequences - underlined the state secretary, indicating that last year 350 Hungarian policemen, and between 300 and 400 in previous years, took part in such missions.
Source: MTI
Photo: MTI/Zoltán Balogh
