Hungary urges EU dialogue with Turkey to prevent new wave of migrants

The European Union should have a dialogue with Turkey despite Ankara’s offensive on Kurdish-led forces in Syria, in order to avoid a fresh wave of migrants coming to Europe, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

The EU relies on Turkey to curb the arrival of refugees into Europe following a 2016 agreement to seal off the Aegean route after more than 1 million people entered the bloc. Turkey, which hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, threatened to “open the gates” to allow those already in the country to head for Europe unless it receives support for its plans.

“We need a constructive dialogue with Turkey to avoid a situation when an additional migratory flow arrives to Europe,” Szijjarto said in an interview, weeks before Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is due to visit Budapest in early November.

Szijjarto said Hungary’s fence on its southern border with Serbia would be the first point where any new flow of migrants could be stopped and that this should be avoided. He also criticized some EU member states, without naming names, “who are making a competition who can bash the Turkish president more” while relying on Turkey to curb the flow of refugees.

 

Via Reuters