The safety of our own citizens must come first

“The lesson of last year’s terrorist attacks in Brussels is that we should know who enters the territory of our countries and for what purpose. This is the only way we can avoid such disasters,” Fidesz MEP Kinga Gál said in Strasbourg.

Last Wednesday, the European Parliament’s plenary session debated the common counter-terrorism measures adopted after last year’s Brussels attacks. “Last year’s events in Brussels made us realize that such horrors can happen to anyone, anytime. They made it clear that we cannot enjoy our freedom without security,” the EPP politician said in connection with the debate.

According to MEP Gál, although these events made EU counter-terrorism policies tougher and more coordinated, recent cases like the one in Germany ring the alarm once again. Taking advantage of the ‘open gate’ policy, radical groups slip into Europe, abusing the backdoors of the asylum system and the waiting time for asylum claims to be decided. That is why it is necessary to separate out those who are in fact eligible for refugee status at the Schengen border. That is the Hungarian government’s objective with the new law.

“International criminal groups have become more and more intertwined with the smuggling of small arms and migration related crimes, such as human trafficking and forgery,” the EPP Vice-President pointed out. “There is only one way to guarantee the security of our continent and defeat human traffickers at the same time: economic migrants need to be separated from real refugees outside the territory of the European Union and nobody should be allowed to set foot on European soil unchecked,” the MEP added.

Background: Europol’s weekly report found that there are more than 5,000 international organized crime groups within the EU. This is not a decrease but a significant increase compared to the 2013 data.