Hungary’s Orban Calls for Italy to Deport Illegal Migrants Back to Africa

5 EU countries now opposed to reckless migration

© Massimo Pinca / Reuters

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that illegal immigrants in Italy must be deported back to Africa instead of relocated to other places in Europe and that Hungary is willing to help with the process.

Orban was speaking during a press conference following a meeting with Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who has come under fire in recent days for refusing to allow more than 100 African migrants to disembark from a boat docked in Catania.

Last Wednesday, the crew of the Diciotti rescued 190 migrants from an overloaded boat about 15 nm off the island of Lampedusa. 13 individuals needed emergency treatment and were medevaced to shore, but 177 remained on board.

Aid group Medecines sans Frontieres reports that 27 minors have been allowed to disembark from the Italian Coast Guard cutter Diciotti, which was temporarily banned from port by its own government last week. About 150 survivors remain on board the vessel, which is alongside at the port of Catania, and Italy is attempting to negotiate with other EU states to persuade them to take them in. 

They are not having much success at getting other EU countries to take them, although those countries have no problem criticizing Salvini for standing firm. Salvini is also getting criticism from within his own government and judicial system which is now investigating whether or not they can charge Salvini with some crime.

Orban, earlier today called Salvini his hero!

Asked whether migrants should be relocated from Italy to other EU countries, Orban said that they should be sent back home.

“We should send them back instead of relocating them,” he said, adding that anything else would mean “the human smugglers have won” and “immigrants would keep coming in further waves”.

Orban said that illegal migration was the most important issue facing the European Union and said that Hungary was “attacked” by Brussels because the country had shown that it was possible that migrants could be stopped on land, referring to the fence built at Hungary’s border with Serbia and Croatia.

It was possible, Orban said, for Salvini to prove that migrants could “also be stopped at sea.” He called on Salvini not to “retreat” and promised assistance from Hungary to help Italy protect its borders. “Europe’s security hinges on his [Salvini’s] success,” he said.

Mariann Őry

@otmarianna

 #Orban: We are ready to help #Italy to deport back migrants to #Africa. Take them back home, instead of relocating them. #OrbanSalvini

Orban said that Brussels’ policies on migration, particularly those driven from Germany, France and Spain, were aimed at “better management” of the influx of migrants, while the Visegrad group - which is made up of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic - wants to stop illegal migration fully.

Earlier in the day, other top officials from Italy's ruling coalition said that EU funds to Hungary should be stopped because it had not responded to Italy's "request for help" in relocating migrants.

Mariann Őry

@otmarianna

 #Orban: I told #Salvini that migrants who arrived in Europe should be taken back. Brussels elite says it's not possible but I'm convinced we only need political will. I wish much success and are thankful for your support. #OrbanSalvini

Salvini described the meeting with Orban as one in a “long series of meetings to change the destiny of Europe” and said the two countries were “close to a historic breakthrough on a continental level”.

Both Orban and Salvini have angered Brussels with their anti-migrant rhetoric and refusal to cooperate with EU demands. 

Orban has referred to migrants in Europe as “Muslim invaders” who he said are not true refugees, while Salvini has said he is prepared to be arrested in his defence of Italy’s borders.

Merkel Walks Out of Parliament After AfD Leader Lambasts her Support for Migrant Quota System

In several decades as a political junkie, I have never heard of a

head of state walking out of parliament because they didn't like

what the opposition was saying. Is Angela getting tired?

Chancellor Angela Merkel addresses the German parliament on February 22, 2018. © Axel Schmidt / Reuters

German Chancellor Angela Merkel walked out of a parliamentary session after a leader from the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party criticized her support of a proposed EU refugee distribution system.

While Merkel and AfD have never been friends, one particular comment by the party’s co-founder, Alexander Gauland, prompted her to leave the Bundestag on Thursday. That remark slammed the chancellor's support for an EU quota system for accepting refugees.

"Countries want to decide for themselves who they take in. There is no national duty with regard to multiculturalism," Gauland said.

AfD co-founder Alice Weidel also had a lot to say during the session, including her view that Merkel is trying to punish the UK for voting to leave the European Union.

"The EU wants to make an example of Great Britain, a punishment beyond any economic or political reason. This is not how one treats a European partner," Weidel said. "Now Brussels, Paris, and Berlin are afraid that others could follow, that other states in Europe could take back their sovereignty."

She went on to accuse the European Commission of "planning to restrict Britain's access to the single market even during the transition period." Such a plan against Germany's biggest trading partner in the EU amounts to "taking free trade and competition as a hostage and making a failed EU ideology," Weidel said.

"The good trading relationship with Great Britain and the rest of the continent have to be maintained – otherwise Europe will be at a disadvantage in global trade." Merkel appeared to be less offended by Weidel's comments, as she at least remained inside parliament while the AfD leader was speaking.

While some of the AfD leaders' remarks were booed in the Bundestag on Thursday, the fact remains that it has seen a sharp growth in popularity. Recent polling found that it has garnered record-high support, becoming more popular than the Social Democrats (SPD) for the very first time. 

I wonder if the Visegrad group knew they have an ally in the German Bundestag?

Europe’s ‘Last Hope’ in Face of Mass Migration is Christianity – Hungarian PM

Migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean into Europe on a rubber boat. © Hani Amara / Reuters

EU politicians endanger Europe by advocating migration, with Christianity being the only means of preventing a Muslim majority on the continent, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.

“Our worst nightmares can come true,” Orban warned, referring to the influx of migrants from north Africa and the Middle East since 2015. “The West falls as it fails to see Europe being overrun.”

Orban told a huge crowd of supporters of his right-wing Fidesz party, who gathered in front of the Royal Castle in Budapest on Sunday, “Christianity is Europe’s last hope. Absurd as it may sound, the danger we face comes from the West, from politicians in Brussels, Berlin and Paris,” who advocate migration and “opened the way to the decline of Christian culture and the advance of Islam,” the PM added.

“The rate of migrants will grow at an accelerating pace in countries to the west of us… For example, the rate of native Germans has decreased in larger German cities. Migrants choose big cities to occupy first: In Bavaria, for instance, they spend more money on migration and integration (of migrants) than on the economy, environment and health combined,” he said.

The EU will find itself under “hideous pressure” if migrants from Muslim countries in Africa aren’t prevented from coming to the continent, Orban said. “If things don't change, there will be a Muslim majority in Europe,” he added.

The rally was dedicated to the launch of the ruling party’s campaign for the April 8 election, in which Fidesz are seen as strong favorites for a third consecutive landslide win. Orban’s popularity in Hungary is boosted by economic success and his firm anti-migrant stance. The country refused to accept refugees in accordance with EU quotas, going as far as building a double razor wire fence on its border to prevent illegal crossings, and was sued by the bloc.

Western European nations want Budapest to implement the same “policies that made them migrant-countries… They want us to accept migrants and have a mixed population,” the PM told the crowd and promised to “fight” the EU on the issue.

He said that Budapest will employ “ever-stronger legal tools” in the battle, recalling the so-called ‘Stop Soros Act,’ which is aimed at curbing migration and giving the state more control over foreign-funded NGOs that assist refugees.

Hungarian-born US philanthropist and multiculturalism advocate George Soros and Orban have been at odds for years. The PM has accused Soros of working to undermine European values, demographics and identity by flooding the continent with millions of Muslim asylum seekers. He also said that the American financier plans to interfere in April’s Hungarian election by spreading propaganda via his network of NGOs.

“Soros has antagonized not only us but also England, President Trump and Israel too… everywhere he wants to get migration accepted. It won’t work. We are not alone and we will fight together... and we will succeed,” Orban said.

The PM praised Hungary’s Visegrad Group partners — the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia — for sharing the anti-migrant stance, adding that “Croatia has come around, Austria has turned in a patriotic direction, and in Bavaria the CSU (Christian Social Union) has created a resistance… we don’t think the fight is hopeless — on the contrary, we are winning,” Orban said.

Germany Considering Sending Migrants Back to Greece as Berlin Can’t Handle Burden Alone

Refugees and migrants line up for a food distribution at the Moria refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. File photo. © Alkis Konstantinidis

Berlin is mooting the idea of sending migrants back to Greece for the first time in five years. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere says that Germany has done its bit to help refugees, but needed help from the rest of the bloc to take in migrants.

De Maiziere is adamant that the EU needs to adopt a common policy towards refugees and that Berlin is unable to handle the burden on its own. Under the Dublin regulations, migrants should be processed in the first member state they entered, which for many was Greece. 

“We have done a lot in Europe in order to improve the refugee situation in Greece,” de Maiziere told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, as cited by Deutsche Welle. “This must have consequences that will enable refugees to be sent back to Greece according to the Dublin regulations.”

Germany has not sent migrants back to Greece since 2011 due to deficiencies in the Greek asylum processing system and the fact that the country is struggling to cope with the number of refugees already in Greece. There are currently 50,000 migrants in Greece who are waiting to be sent on to other EU countries. 

More than one million refugees moved to Germany in 2015 under Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open doors policy. The number of migrants reaching Germany in 2016 has been stemmed, largely due to a number of countries in the south of Europe sealing their borders. 

Merkel’s willingness to accept migrants has not been applauded by everyone in Germany, with sizable sections of the population growing increasingly disillusioned with the number of refugees the country has taken in.

In an interview with the Bild newspaper, Merkel strongly defended her decision to allow migrants to settle in Germany, despite her approval ratings dropping to a five-year low of 45 percent.

“We did not reduce benefits for anyone in Germany as a result of the aid for refugees. In fact, we actually saw social improvements in some areas,” Merkel said in the interview on Saturday, as cited by Reuters.

“We took nothing away from people here. We are still achieving our big goal of maintaining and improving the quality of life in Germany,” she added.

The German government has already repatriated 35,000 people in the first seven months of 2016, with not everyone arriving in the country deemed as deserving asylum status.

“It's completely clear that a year like last year cannot be repeated, which is why we have taken the measures we have. But it was the right thing to do that we rose to this humanitarian responsibility and continue to do so,” Merkel said, adding that if she were faced with the same situation today, she would act no differently.

Merkel also faces a difficult task in trying to get each of the member EU states to take in quotas of migrants, with a number of Central European nations adamant that they will not be taking any refugees.

The ‘Visegrad group’, which includes Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, staunchly oppose any regulations on re-distribution of migrants across the EU. 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been particular outspoken, saying his country “does not need a single migrant” and “every single migrant poses a public security and terrorism risk.” 

The head of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party and former Polish PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski shared Orban’s view, saying that no refugees should be accepted. 

In response, some German MEP’s have suggested fining countries that are not willing to give asylum to migrants. 

“Cash payments to member states that do not abide by the European law and those countries that don't provide enough assistance in accepting asylum seekers and registering must be slashed,” Inge Grassle, the head of Budgetary Control Committee of the EP told Die Welt in August.

Germany is the largest contributor to the EU treasury, last year paying in €14.3 billion (US$16 billion) more than it received from Brussels.

Send Them Back: Bavarian Minister Wants to Repatriate 1,000s of Refugees Within 3 Years

Merkel's Migrant Madness under fire from Bavaria

© Dominic Ebenbichler / Reuters

The thousands of migrants that flooded into Germany thanks to Chancellor Merkel’s open-door policy should be sent back home within the next three years, Bavaria’s Finance Minister said in an interview with Spiegel newspaper.

The politician added that the conflicts in the war-torn states the refugees come from should be over within that time-frame.

“In specific terms, we need instead of reunification of migrant families, to repatriate these several hundred thousand refugees within the next three years,” Bavarian FM Marcus Söder said.

“We’ve given many people temporary protection from civil wars, but if the situations in their home countries improve, they should return there to rebuild their homelands. The Asylum Procedure Law stipulates that people should return to their homeland when they no longer need to flee,” he stressed, while noting that some countries that the refugees come from, such as Afghanistan and Iraq, already have safe areas where migrants can go.

Germany accepted more than a million asylum seekers last year. Since the closure of the so-called Balkan route and signing of the refugee pact between the EU and Turkey, the number of refugees flowing into Europe has sharply dropped. Still, there are thousands of asylum seekers crammed into migrant camps all over Europe waiting to be granted the right to stay.

Söder further stated that even “the best of intentions do not have the power to successfully integrate so many people from a completely foreign culture,” pointing to the recently intensifying debate on Islamic attire worn in public places in Germany, especially full-face veils that are deemed to rob Muslim women of a “chance of integrating” into society. A new law is being mulled over by German authorities that would ban the burqa and niqab, garments worn by Muslim women that adhere to ultraconservative interpretations of Islam. Polls suggest that 81% of German citizens support the move, and Söder says he can be counted among them.

“Whoever wants to live here must adapt to our values – and not vice versa. The burqa is not compatible with Germany. If someone wants to keep wearing it, this someone should do it elsewhere,” the politician noted sharply.

I wonder of German courts will agree with that thinking? French courts did not.

The idea for the ban appeared after violent Islamist attacks were carried out in the German cities of Wurzburg and Ansbach this summer, for which Söder blames Merkel, saying that instead of trying to integrate refugees into German culture, the main priority of the government should be protecting the German population.

“It is therefore clear that a simple ‘we can do it’ is not enough,” Söder said.

“I think the citizens would have preferred a different message [from authorities] after the attacks, something like ‘we have realized [the threat].’ But we’re still waiting.”

Her initiative has met strong opposition from a number of European leaders, however, some of whom, like Söder, would prefer to talk about the repatriation and deportation of migrants instead. Austrian Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil has suggested that the EU should hold a “summit on deportation” to discuss steps that would speed up the process of returning refugees to their home countries, while slamming Angela Merkel’s “welcoming” approach as “irresponsible.”

The Czech Republic has also openly criticized the quota system, along with Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary, which together form the so-called “Visegrad group” that opposes any mandated re-distribution of migrants across the EU.

The German state of Bavaria has been an outspoken critic of Merkel’s refugee policy over the past months. Last year, Bavarian leaders even threatening to sue the federal government if it failed to stem the influx of refugees. Back then, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann warned that if “effective measures” weren’t taken to deal with the crisis, Bavaria would take the matter to the Constitutional Court and charge the German government with endangering “the legal capacity of the German states to act independently.”