Hungary's Orban says illegal immigration threatens Europe
Illegal immigration is a threat to Hungary and all of Europe, with the biggest risk coming from hundreds of millions of people from the "depths of Africa" looking to escape poverty, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Saturday.
Orban accused the European Union of failing to defend its citizens from the "masses of illegal immigrants," who he said threatened the cultural identity of European countries and contributed to increased terrorism, unemployment and criminality.
"For us, today Europe is at stake," Orban said. "The survival, disappearance or, more precisely, the transformation beyond recognition of the European citizen's lifestyle, European values and the European nations."
"The question now is not only what kind of Europe we Hungarians would like to live in," Orban said, "Rather, will all that we now call Europe exist at all?"
So far this year, over 90,000 migrants and refugees have reached Hungary, which is building a fence on its border with Serbia to stem the flow. Most refugees request asylum in Hungary but quickly leave for other destinations in the EU like Germany or Sweden before their cases are settled.
