Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto addresses a news conference in Budapest, capital of Hungary, on March 16, 2017. Brussels' migration policy, resting on halfway measures, has failed, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said Thursday. (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)
BUDAPEST, March 16 (Xinhua) -- Brussels' migration policy, resting on halfway measures, has failed, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said Thursday.
Szijjarto made the statement at a news conference, responding to Turkey's recent threat to go back on its deal with the European Union (EU).
Szijjarto claimed that the failure of the agreement was clear from the beginning.
The EU-Turkey agreement was signed on March 18, 2016, and came into effect two days later. The goal of the deal is to put an end to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants paying smugglers to cross from Turkey to Greece by returning the majority to Turkey.
The EU has been relying exclusively on this agreement with Turkey to maintain security in Europe while doing nothing to boost protection of EU borders, but criticizing Turkey, Szijjarto said.
Brussels put European security in the hands of the Turkish government, he charged.
At the same time, European leaders made what Szijjarto considered a huge mistake, in "competing" with one another on who could be louder in criticizing and attacking the Turkish government.
Nor did they take advantage of the comparative calm to increase protections on the southern EU borders, Szijjarto said.
Should the flow of migrants again increase to thousands a day, the EU will be just as helpless as it was earlier, Szijjarto said, defending Hungary's decision to reinforce the barrier on its border with a second fence.
He also defended Hungary's new law that would allow all migrants crossing into Hungary to be held in detention until their asylum applications were decided on.
Szijjarto also addressed the dispute between the Netherlands and Turkey, which broke out when the Dutch refused to allow Turkish government officials to address expat Turkish communities in support of a Turkish referendum set for mid-April.
"It is unusual and unfortunate to see conflict between two NATO allies on issues like this," Szijjarto added.
