Hungary will withdraw from the UN Global Compact for Migration before it comes into effect, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Wednesday in Budapest following a government meeting.
"This package goes against Hungary's common sense and interests," said the minister. The agreement supports migration and considers it to be a human right, which, according to Szijjarto, is unacceptable from Hungary's point of view.
The text of the new treaty was agreed at the UN General Assembly last Friday, and aims to create a worldwide framework for managing migration. The Global Compact for Migration will be signed in Morocco in December.
It was also wrong that the new agreement currently being negotiated by UN members would not be legally binding, Szijjarto added. Hungary would thus not be participating in the ongoing discussions in Marrakesh and would vote against the migration treaty in the UN General Assembly.
Under right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Hungary has sought to insulate itself from influxes of refugees and migrants through increasingly hardline policies.
Orban rejects the quota-based distribution of refugees within the EU, and in 2015 ordered the building of fences along Hungary's borders with Serbia and Croatia to keep out migrants travelling along the Balkan route into northern Europe.
