‘Illegal Migration Led to Terror in EU, Needs to be Stopped’ – Hungarian FM

Budapest has dismissed the possibility of compromise with the EU on the migrant rehousing issue, rejecting the proposed plan on “fair share” distribution of asylum seekers, designed to replace the mandatory quota system.

“Hungary's view on migration is clear and rock steady: We think illegal immigration is dangerous. Because of illegal immigration, Europe has never had to face the kind of terror threat it faces now,” Szijjarto told a news conference with ministers and officials from Eastern and Southern Europe.

The foreign minister stressed that any sort of “encouragement” for further migrant arrivals was against the interests of Europe, while the only acceptable solution for Hungary was stopping the illegal migration as far from the EU’s borders as possible.

He delivered the comments at a press conference, while responding to a question regarding the new plan on migrant distribution among EU states. The plan, drafted by Estonia, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, was advertised as “the mother of all compromises,” aimed at replacing the system of mandatory migrant relocation quotas, strongly opposed by Hungary and Poland.

“We have a good understanding where the possible middle ground lies,” an Estonian spokesman said Wednesday, while commenting on the prospects of the drafted plan.

Under the Estonian plan, unveiled last week, the European Commission would determine “fair shares” of asylum seekers that countries would be expected to take in to ease the burden on the EU member states overwhelmed by the migrant influx. The “fair shares” a country is expected to take would be largely determined by its population and wealth. The proposed system, however, has an “early warning” system used if the number of arrivals starts to surpass the drafted “fair share.”

At first other member states would be asked to provide material, financial and personnel support to the country experiencing the surging migrant influx. If the crisis persists, however, the other states might be obliged to show “solidarity” and take in the excess migrants. The main difference between the Estonian plan and the existing system of mandatory relocations is that the migrant transfer between the two states would only take place if both states involved voluntarily agreed to do so.

The issue of the migrant quotas dates back to the migrant crisis and the EU decision in 2015 to rehouse 160,000 refugees from Greece and Italy within other member states over a period of two years. As of November 2017, only around 32,000 migrants had been resettled under the program. Hungarian PM Viktor Orban has become one of the most vocal critics of the mandatory quota system, arguing that its implementation would result in “tens of millions” of migrants flocking to Europe.

The program was strongly opposed by the countries believed to be not popular destinations for migrants. Hungary and Poland refused to take part in the program, while Slovakia has only taken in a small number from Greece.

Hungary and Slovakia also appealed to the European Court of Justice, asking it to reverse the EU decision to relocate migrants. On September 6, 2017, the court said that it had “dismissed in its entirety the actions brought by Slovakia and Hungary.” The ruling was slammed by Szijjarto as “appalling and irresponsible.” Hungary’s foreign minister said also that “politics has raped European law.”

The EU, in its turn, has also launched legal action against Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic for not “taking the necessary action” regarding the migrants and breaching their “legal obligations” by non-compliance with the EU resettlement plan. 

‘Defend Europe’: Far-right Activists Launch Mission to Rescue, Send Back Illegals from Libya

I seriously doubt that anything good can come from this. It is, however, an unfortunate indication of what a pathetic failure EU efforts have been to curb the extraordinary migration of Muslims into Europe.

© AFP

Far-right activists from the Identitarian movement have charted a ship to fight illegal migration off the Libyan coast and to expose what they describe as alleged collaboration between European NGOs operating in the area and human traffickers.

A 40-meter-long ship called the C-Star, which was charted by the group, set sail from the African port of Djibouti on July 6 and is expected to take the far-right activists via the Sicilian port of Catania next week before reaching the relief zone of the Libyan coast.

The operation, called "Defend Europe," is run by the pan-European Identitarian Movement – a vast network of nationalist, far-right, nativist and populist movements across several European countries, including France, Germany, Austria and Italy.

In this particular case, the French, German and Italian branches of the movement participated in the initiative that was launched as the activists managed to raise more than $ 91,000 in an online fundraiser campaign they launched in mid-May.

The fundraising campaign was successful, even despite the fact that the online payment system Paypal froze the activists’ accounts after a massive opposition campaign, as reported by the France's Liberation newspaper.

The funds were eventually used to lease the C-Star and its crew. On the campaign's website, the far-right activists wrote that the goal of the mission was to “save Europe, to stop illegal immigration, and end the dying in the sea.”

They went on to say that, once they reach the relief zone off the Libyan coast, they will “document the doings of the NGOs, expose their collaboration with the human smugglers, and intervene if they do something illegal.”

The activists also pledged support to the Libyan Coast Guard by saying that their vessel could serve as a “recon ship.”

The Identitarians also branded their initiative as a “search and rescue mission” and said that if they get a SOS signal they will “of course save the people in distress - and hand them over to the Libyan Coast Guard to make sure that they are brought to the closest harbour, according to international law.”

They further said that their "’No Way’ policy for illegal immigration will discourage human traffickers and NGOs to lure people into the sea.”

The far-right activists also said that the activities of the NGOs operating off the Libyan coast and saving migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe only stimulate human traffickers to send refugees and migrants to the sea in small overloaded and poorly equipped boats, thus exposing them to a greater risk.

The initiative has already provoked concerns among some NGOs engaged in sea rescue operations, and they have said that the arrival of the vessel charted by the Identitarians could disrupt their operations. The French authorities also criticized the move as a “provocation” and a “hindrance” to relief efforts, French media report, adding that the issue was already referred to a court.

The Identitarian movement is known for its staunch anti-immigrant position and protests against what it describes as “Islamization of Europe.” In one such action, the members of the Austrian branch of the movement covered a statue of the 18th-century Empress Maria Theresa in Vienna with a huge burqa in December 2016.

A sign reading "Islamization? No thanks!" was placed next to the statue.

In May, some 50 activists from the German branch of the Identitarian Movement attempted to “raid” the Justice Ministry building in Berlin using a 10-meter-long ladder in a protest against a proposed law designed to fight hate speech on social media.

Merkel’s CDU Human Rights Speaker Quits Party over ‘Open Door’ Policy

President of the German Federal Association of Expellees (Bund der Vertriebenen, BdV) Erika Steinbach (L) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel © Thomas Peter / Reuters

A human rights spokesperson for Chancellor Merkel’s CDU is quitting the conservative party citing sharp discontent with the government’s “political will” to let thousands of unidentified refugees in, despite the risk of terrorists slipping through as well.

Erika Steinbach, a longtime member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the party’s human rights spokesperson, explained her demarche in a Saturday interview with Die Welt.

“Would I vote CDU at the moment? No. Would I join the CDU today? No. I can only draw the honest conclusion of quitting the CDU,” she told the newspaper. 

Steinbach, who until recently was a member of the CDU faction’s leadership, maintained that the government’s decision to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers into Germany without checking their identity went “against our laws and against EU treaties.”

She claimed that Merkel’s cabinet had deliberately encouraged illegal immigration: “At the Federal Office for Migration, thousands of passports have been identified as counterfeit, without any legal consequences for the respective migrants being drawn. There is a political will behind it.”

She also argued that the failure to identify new arrivals has resulted in a security lapse that has allowed terrorist organizations to send their operatives into Europe.

“With migrants came not only asylum seekers, but also – as many warned from the very outset – terrorists. Our security environment has significantly deteriorated since opening the borders,” Steinbach said.

CDU’s leadership has yet to comment on her decision to resign, though Manfred Pentz, the party head from Steinbach’s home state of Hessen, said that it was “predictable.”

“It would be consistent if she also laid down her Bundestag mandate [her credentials as a lawmaker] which she… owes to the party,” Pentz said.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper has reported that the far-right anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party promptly received Steinbach’s resignation. 

AfD Vice-chairman Alexander Gauland said he will “reach Mrs Steinbach very soon and discuss her future political plans.”

While Steinbach said she isn’t tempted to join the AfD, she expressed hope the party will enter the parliament after September’s general election “so that there is finally an opposition.”

Steinbach herself was the subject of intense criticism last year when she posted an image depicting a blonde child surrounded by South Asian-looking women with a caption atop reading “Germany 2030” and one below with the women asking the child, “Where are you from then?”

"Germany 2030, Where are you from then?"

Many considered the tweet to be openly racist and xenophobic. The backlash forced Steinbach to produce an awkward statement that read, “It is not an aggressive photo, there are no Arabic refugees depicted, just friendly Indians looking curiously and [interestedly] at a child,” as cited by Deutsche Welle.

She also waded into hot water in 2012 when she claimed Hitler’s NSDAP was “a left party” because it had the words “socialist” and “workers’” in its name – a statement that also triggered a barrage of criticism in the German media.

Germany took in some 890,000 asylum seekers in 2015 alone, but the number dropped to 280,000 the following year due to the closure of the ‘Balkan route’ and a migrant deal struck between the EU and Turkey to stem the flow of refugees into Europe, according to AFP.

I suspect there are some polls behind this move with an election in 9 months, otherwise the timing is curious. The reasons she states were more applicable a year or two ago than they are now, so why did it take so long for her to decide?