EU official: ‘We have a moral duty to offer protection’

“The majority of people arriving in Europe are Syrians in need of our help… We have a moral duty to offer them protection,” a senior EU official said yesterday.

In a press conference release, Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU Commissioner of Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship said: “Constructed walls are temporary solution, not sustainable ones; and they force the refugees to other ends.”

This came following his meeting with Hungary’s Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó, and the Minister of the Interior, Sándor Pintér, in Budapest, where he expressed his opposition to Hungary’s refugees’ policy.

He pointed out that all EU countries are facing difficult stages and that moving the problem from one country to another does not solve it, stressing the importance of Hungary’s continued cooperation with the EU.

Szijjártó said that keeping refugees in the closest areas to their home countries until the war ends would be in their favour.

He added: “The EU should endure the funding for the refugee camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon; in addition to establishing new camps when necessary, if we do not find a solution for the crisis outside the EU, there would be no solution available anyway.”

Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas sent a message to the President of the European Commission Delegation, Jean-Claude Juncker, in which he demanded providing more financial assistance to Turkey, in relation to the refugee crisis.

Hungarian President Viktor Orban warned that “the European identity is in a threat because of the refugees,” adding that “the Muslim community does not want to integrate into Western societies.”

This came in statements made by the right-wing politician in an interview yesterday with the Hungarian newspaper De Bursa, where he added: “If we let Muslims in our continent, they will become the majority very soon, and change the whole demographic map.”