BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The leaders of Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia on Tuesday proposed setting up facilities for hosting asylum-seekers outside the territory of the European Union, a solution they said would help stem illegal immigration they believe poses an existential threat to the bloc.

Following a meeting in Komarno, Slovakia, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico outlined a stricter migration policy they'd like to see adopted by the EU, including more effective deportation measures and greater funding for member countries on the bloc's external borders.

A long-awaited migration pact adopted by the EU in May “is not a solution but the problem itself," said Orbán, who has long been among the most ardent opponents of immigration in the 27-member bloc.

He proposed setting up EU-funded and operated “hotspots” in North Africa and other locations for holding asylum-seekers until their applications for international protection are approved.

“Those who want to come to Europe can gather there and submit their applications from there, which we will evaluate. Whoever we allow may come, and those who we do not will remain,” Orbán said. “You have to wait outside. All other solutions are ineffective."

Each of the three leaders has been outspoken against immigration, but Orbán has made it a central pillar of his right-wing populist governance for nearly a decade. He spurred outrage in 2022 when he told a crowd of party faithful that Hungary did not want to become “mixed race,” and he has opined that “there aren’t enough Christian, white, traditional Europeans in Europe.”

On Tuesday, Fico, an Orbán ally, proposed that the EU erect physical barriers on its external borders — something Hungary did unilaterally in 2015 after hundreds of thousands of people, mostly fleeing war and instability in Syria and Iraq, entered the EU in a matter of months.

Fico also criticized the EU's recent immigration reforms, saying the bloc needs to pass “a new migration pact which takes into account what the laws have not yet allowed” such as deportations.

In a joint statement adopted during their meeting, the three leaders agreed that illegal migration “is a serious problem, fueled by geopolitical instability, growing conflicts and social inequalities in Europe’s immediate neighborhood.”

However, according to Frontex, the EU's border agency, the number of irregular border crossings into the bloc fell by 42% in the first nine months of 2024, and by 79% along the Western Balkan route, which includes Serbia and Hungary.

News from © The Associated Press, 2024