Hungary slams French position on anti-refugee border wall
Hungary has slammed French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius for his “shocking and groundless” judgment on the country’s new anti-refugee border fence.
Hungary recently constructed a fence on its border with neighboring Serbia in a bid to stop the dramatic inflow of refugees.
The Hungarian army finished erecting its controversial barrier earlier this week. The fence consists of three rolls of razor wire extending along its 175-kilometer border with neighboring Serbia.
Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a statement on Sunday that a French Embassy representative would be summoned to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry on Monday over Fabius's comments.
"Instead of shocking and groundless judgments, one should instead concentrate on finding common solutions for Europe," Szijjarto added.
On Sunday, Fabius said during an interview that the razor-wire barrier, does "not respect Europe's common values".
The French foreign minister called "scandalous" the attitude of "a certain number of European countries, particularly in the east," further accusing some European countries of opposing a quota scheme for the sharing of refugees across EU member states.
Tens of thousands of refugees from conflict-hit states in the Middle East and Africa have been trying to make their way to Europe in recent months.
Nearly 340,000 refugees reached the EU’s borders during the first seven months of the year up from 123,500 during the same period in 2014, according to the bloc's border agency Frontex.
For the sake of starting new and better lives, many of them have to pay hefty sums of money to people smugglers to get them through borders illegally.
More than 2,500 people have died trying to reach Europe so far in 2015 according to the United Nations.
Urgent EU Meeting
The EU is set to address the refugee crisis in an emergency meeting set for September 14.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve (R) shakes hands with British Interior Minister Theresa May as she arrives to attend a meeting with Union European Interior ministers in Paris, on August 29, 2015. AFP photo
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The meeting was pushed by the UK, France, and Germany who are all part of the EU block of countries.
Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, Britain's Interior Minister Theresa May, and French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, "underlined the necessity to take immediate action to deal with the challenge from the migrant influx.”
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve (R) poses with German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere as they arrive to attend a meeting with Union European Interior ministers in Paris, on August 29, 2015. AFP photo
The trio also called for reception centers of the refugees to be set up urgently in Italy and Greece.
The special ministerial meeting will take place in Brussels on September 14.
The conference aims to find measures to better cope with the thousands of refugees arriving daily in the continent in search of asylum or a better life.
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