Migration

The Fidesz MEP Group rejects the introduction of humanitarian visas

2018. 12. 03.

The Fidesz People’s Party Group rejects the introduction of humanitarian visas because it is “outrageous, absurd and dangerous,” Kinga Gál MEP said in a statement to Hungarian journalists in Brussels on Monday.

The MEP said that the EP committee proposal would allow migrants to enter the EU without prior screening and any asylum procedures. It gives them a visa and then all the other procedures will take place in the Member States, she said.

“We see that anyone who is inside, be it a dangerous person, a migrant, an illegal, or an economic immigrant, cannot be returned by the EU, so they will stay in the affected Member State. This is absurd and it is a security concern,” she said.

In addition, the consulates will be “thwarted by thousands” of the visa seekers, which will place an extra burden on Member States’ representations in non-EU countries,” she said. “It contradicts common sense when Parliament takes such an initiative,” she stressed.

The MEP drew attention to the fact that the migration supporting MEPs of the European Parliament are trying to push the initiative throat down the EP at all costs, despite the once failed original proposal. She said it was shocking that without changing the text, the committee could put the document back to the vote.

“All this shows that there is creativity in those who want to bring migrants to Europe at all costs. We can only say that we are against it because we consider this whole situation as outrageous and absurd,” Kinga Gál added.

The European Parliament’s (EP) Committee on Civil Liberties, Home Affairs and Justice (LIBE) voted on Monday to launch a report on the introduction of a humanitarian visa for legal immigration into the EU, and the EP plenary will vote on the proposal before mid-December in Strasbourg.

If the resolution that has 37 votes in favor, 10 votes against and three abstentions, is approved also by the EP plenary, than the EP calls on the European Commission to propose by April a Community legal framework for the possible entry of the persons seeking protection, for the establishment of a humanitarian visa, which would make it possible to submit an application for asylum at those EU Member States’ delegations outside the EU, that volunteered to do so.

According to the accepted proposal, states issuing humanitarian visas would allow the entry of persons concerned into their territory solely for the purpose of submitting their application for asylum. However, the proposed regulation would not oblige Member States to issue them, but would only create a common framework for those wishing to do so.