UN approves migrant pact
December 13th, 2018A pro-government commentator accuses the UN of conflating economic migrants and asylum seekers running for their lives.
Magyar Idők’s Zoltán Kottász lambasts the UN migration pact for suggesting that migration is a desirable and positive phenomenon. The pro-government columnist underscores that refugees fleeing wars, famine and natural catastrophes should be given help, and also concedes that nation states should coordinate their efforts in offering humanitarian help. Kottász, however, thinks that humanitarian help should not be extended to individuals who leave their homelands in the hope of finding better opportunities rather than running for their lives. While persecution is a valid reason to seek asylum, economic migrants should not be recognized as refugee, he writess. In conclusion, Kottász thinks that the UN migrant pact does not serve humanitarian objectives – on the contrary, it may spur people in poor regions to embark on dangerous journeys in the hope of settling down in developed Western countries. (Hungary was the second country, following the United States, to withdraw from the negotiations on the UN Migration Compact earlier this year, see BudaPost, November 6.)