AFP, United Nations :
Hungary called Tuesday for the United Nations to set global quotas on accepting migrants, saying it was unfair for Europe to take so many refugees fleeing Syria.
Hungary, whose hardline approach on migrants has been widely criticized by other governments and rights activists, said it would make the proposal formally on Wednesday at the United Nations.
“We suggest that all major players should bear some burden. We should introduce some world quotas,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told reporters.
“The major sources of this mass popular movement are countries which became unstable because of international political decisions. They were not made only by Europe.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has criticized Hungary’s sealing of its borders, has called on Europeans to do more and has convened a meeting for Wednesday on the crisis.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expected to take a hard line in the talks after ordering the construction of razor wire on his country’s borders to divert migrants.
Almost 300,000 migrants have entered Hungary this year.
Most arrived to the European Union through porous Greece and are seeking to head to northern Europe, especially Germany, which has welcomed refugees fleeing abuses in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.
“Europe is not in a shape to accept hundreds of thousands or even millions of economic migrants,” Szijjarto said.
“There are clear European regulations saying that member-states have to defend the external borders,” he said.
He hit back at criticism from Croatia, whose prime minister, Zoran Milanovic, on Tuesday called Hungary’s policy “totally unacceptable.”
Szijjarto said that other countries including the United States — the world’s top overall host nation of immigrants — has also constructed barriers on borders.
Meanwhile, refugees coming to Germany can expect a roof over their head, a bed to sleep in and three meals a day. But with authorities struggling to find housing for tens of thousands of people each month, many new arrivals will find their lodgings a squeeze.
Smaller, in fact, than what’s permitted for a German shepherd dog.
An Associated Press survey has found that several of Germany’s 16 states have waived the usual rules expected of communal housing. As a result, migrants in some parts of Germany are finding themselves living in cramped conditions that rights groups say are unfit for human habitation.”The situation is becoming dramatic,” said Karl Kopp, an expert on refugee policy with the campaign group Pro Asyl. “If we put people up in undignified conditions then this will have long-term consequences for their health and their ability to integrate in the country.”
On Sunday 14 people – including three police officers – were injured when a mass brawl involving hundreds of refugees broke out at a reception center in Calden, near Kassel. The site is a tent city originally designed for 1,000 people but now housing 1,500.
“Improvised, often catastrophically overcrowded emergency shelters offer residents no privacy or place to retreat,” Pro Asyl said following the incident. “Every trip to the canteen, to the toilets or the showers becomes a patience test in these mass shelters.”
The warning came as the German government agreed on measures Tuesday aimed at helping authorities cope with this year’s surge in migrants.
Hungary called Tuesday for the United Nations to set global quotas on accepting migrants, saying it was unfair for Europe to take so many refugees fleeing Syria.
Hungary, whose hardline approach on migrants has been widely criticized by other governments and rights activists, said it would make the proposal formally on Wednesday at the United Nations.
“We suggest that all major players should bear some burden. We should introduce some world quotas,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told reporters.
“The major sources of this mass popular movement are countries which became unstable because of international political decisions. They were not made only by Europe.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has criticized Hungary’s sealing of its borders, has called on Europeans to do more and has convened a meeting for Wednesday on the crisis.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is expected to take a hard line in the talks after ordering the construction of razor wire on his country’s borders to divert migrants.
Almost 300,000 migrants have entered Hungary this year.
Most arrived to the European Union through porous Greece and are seeking to head to northern Europe, especially Germany, which has welcomed refugees fleeing abuses in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere.
“Europe is not in a shape to accept hundreds of thousands or even millions of economic migrants,” Szijjarto said.
“There are clear European regulations saying that member-states have to defend the external borders,” he said.
He hit back at criticism from Croatia, whose prime minister, Zoran Milanovic, on Tuesday called Hungary’s policy “totally unacceptable.”
Szijjarto said that other countries including the United States — the world’s top overall host nation of immigrants — has also constructed barriers on borders.
Meanwhile, refugees coming to Germany can expect a roof over their head, a bed to sleep in and three meals a day. But with authorities struggling to find housing for tens of thousands of people each month, many new arrivals will find their lodgings a squeeze.
Smaller, in fact, than what’s permitted for a German shepherd dog.
An Associated Press survey has found that several of Germany’s 16 states have waived the usual rules expected of communal housing. As a result, migrants in some parts of Germany are finding themselves living in cramped conditions that rights groups say are unfit for human habitation.”The situation is becoming dramatic,” said Karl Kopp, an expert on refugee policy with the campaign group Pro Asyl. “If we put people up in undignified conditions then this will have long-term consequences for their health and their ability to integrate in the country.”
On Sunday 14 people – including three police officers – were injured when a mass brawl involving hundreds of refugees broke out at a reception center in Calden, near Kassel. The site is a tent city originally designed for 1,000 people but now housing 1,500.
“Improvised, often catastrophically overcrowded emergency shelters offer residents no privacy or place to retreat,” Pro Asyl said following the incident. “Every trip to the canteen, to the toilets or the showers becomes a patience test in these mass shelters.”
The warning came as the German government agreed on measures Tuesday aimed at helping authorities cope with this year’s surge in migrants.
