BUDAPEST (Sputnik) – Hungary will not agree to a proposed quota on the resettlement of refugees among EU member states because the quota system automatically legalizes refugees in Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orban reiterated Monday.
"Hungary will not agree to the quotas allocated to it because they will legalize the refugees’ stay in the country," Orban said in an address to parliament.
The Hungarian leader, whose opposition to the refugee redistribution system dates back to May when it was first proposed by the European Commission, suggested the solution lied with building refugee camps outside the European Union.
Hungarian authorities, additionally, advocate for a division between those migrants seeking to return to their homelands and those who wish to stay in Europe.
"If Europe cannot defend its borders, then we need to assemble and defend our borders ourselves," Orban said, urging lawmakers to pass an amendment allowing the army to act beyond its borders.
The inclusion of 54,000 asylum seekers currently in Hungary to the European Commission’s latest quota identifies Hungary, to Orban’s objection, as a frontier EU state.
Latest media reports suggest ministers of the European Union will leave Hungary out of the resettlement scheme at Tuesday’s EU Justice and Home Affairs Council.
Foreign ministers from anti-quota European nations, including Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are set to meet in the Czech capital of Prague on Monday.
