In a conference held in Qatar on Tuesday, March 7, Minister Szijjártó emphasised that the negative effects of the war in Ukraine directly affected Hungary, adding that these consequences are being felt all over the world as well, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
According to Minister Szijjártó, the war put in the spotlight the fragile nature of the existing international system. The same stressed that the serious challenges regarding global food supplies together with energy supplies could lead to security risks, About Hungary explains.
“Food shortages and increasing energy prices could lead to serious security risks in countries that have a low level of development and lack stability,” Minister Szijjártó pointed out in this regard.
As the Minister explained, these challenges could lead to the spread of extreme ideologies and a growing perception of danger, which according to him, are among the main causes of large-scale illegal migration.
He also stated that considering that Europe is facing serious security risks from the east, it would hardly withstand a challenge from the south in the form of increased illegal migration.
Hungary is one of the countries that has recently been struggling with a large influx of irregular immigration. In December of last year, the number of illegal border crossing attempts almost doubled compared to 2021 figures.
Commenting on these data, the Prime Minister’s chief advisor for internal security, György Bakondi, said back then that the situation was getting complicated as immigrants are reaching the Hungarian borders from different countries.
In 2022, about 265,000 people tried to cross the southern border of the country, compared to 114,000 registered in the same period of the previous year.
Bakondi also noted that migrants are now reaching Hungarian borders from Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, stressing that arrivals are not only from countries near the bloc.
Last December, in an effort to fight smuggling activities and to prevent abuses, Austria and Hungary joined forces towards this issue.
In this regard, the Ministry of the Interior of Austria revealed that the cross-border cooperation between the Austrian and Hungarian authorities has been called “Operation Fox” which officially started on December 13, 2022, on the Austro-Hungarian order. Since then, the authorities have taken care to prevent any type of illegal movement and smuggling.
At the same time, Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said that the authorities are doing everything they can to prevent smuggling and asylum abuse.
Source: Schengen Visa Info