Hungary says willing to take back some migrants from Austria

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Hungary is willing to take back some migrants from Austria under European rules and would then return them to their countries of origin, mostly Kosovo and Albania, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Tuesday.

Orban, speaking after hosting a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, said Hungary has agreements and procedures in place with the countries of origin as well as the countries through which the migrants would be returned home by bus.

Orban, who said “every single migrant represents a public security and terror risk,” made it clear that Hungary would take back only those migrants who first entered the European Union by registering in Hungary, in accordance with the so-called Dublin asylum rules. The return of migrants, like those from the Middle East who entered the EU through Greece, would be rejected.

Kern said Austria would be sending 20 policemen to help guard Hungary’s border with Serbia, where a razor-wire fence was built to stop the migrant flow.

“Due to the measures applied at the Hungarian-Serb border, migration to Austria and Germany has fallen significantly,” Kern said. “Both us and our German neighbours, should we say, profited from these measures.”

Austria needed to support Hungary’s efforts while also striving to help those stuck on the Serbian side of the border, where hundreds of migrants and refugees are waiting in precarious conditions to file asylum claims with Hungary, Kern added.

Hungary is registering no more than 30 claims a day.

Orban’s government is holding a national referendum on Oct. 2 to seek political support for its opposition to any future redistribution of migrants within the EU.

“For the Hungarian economy to function, for the Hungarian population to subsist, for Hungary to have a future, we don’t need a single migrant,” Orban said. For the European Commission, migration “is the medicine for certain problems. For us, it is poison, which is why we don’t need it. We don’t want to take it.”