Hungarian PM Believes Migration Crisis in Europe May Return With Renewed Vigour

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned in an interview with the newspaper Die Welt that the migration crisis that hit Europe in 2015 might come back even "bigger" saying the Schengen zone countries must set up a special council of interior ministers to tackle migration issues instead of the European Commission.

"Everything that we experienced in 2015 will happen again, and it will be bigger. Soon the Arab countries will surpass the European countries in population. And I haven't mentioned Africa yet, where soon there will be more people than can be fed. In that respect Hungary is a frontier country. We live our lives in complete readiness. We have many thousands of soldiers and policemen at our southern border", Orban was quoted as saying by the outlet late on Saturday.

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The head of the Hungarian government also suggested that a new body of Schengen zone interior ministers should be set up to deal with migration issues in Europe instead of the European Commission.

"A separate body needs to be created for this, where only the interior ministers of the Schengen zone would sit… The interior ministers of the Schengen zone would need to turn this into a very strong council, where questions that concern the whole Schengen zone would be decided in the manner of experts and not of politicians", the prime minister added.

The migration crisis broke out four years ago after hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers started arriving in Europe from the Middle East and North Africa, fleeing armed conflicts, natural disasters or looking for better economic opportunities. According to the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, the number of asylum-seekers in the country surged by over 130,000 in 2015 compared to the previous year and did not return to normal levels until 2017.

Orban is known to be one of the most fierce anti-immigration advocates in Europe and has categorically opposed the idea of accepting refugees from other European countries under migrant resettlement schemes proposed by the European Union.