UPDATE - Hungary, Germany differ in stance over refugee policy

UPDATES WITH MORE REMARKS BY GERMAN CHANCELLOR

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN (AA) - Chancellor Angela Merkel and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban set out starkly different views on refugee crisis in a tense joint news conference following their meeting in Berlin on Thursday.

Merkel defended her humanitarian approach on the refugee crisis and highlighted that she decided to open borders for refugees in 2015 due to exceptional circumstances at that time.

“We should always remember, and we should never forget that it is about human beings…This is also about one of the basic messages of Europe, and it is humanity,” she said.

Merkel acknowledged that the EU member states had made a mistake in the past by neglecting Syrian refugees and leaving Turkey alone in addressing this challenge, until refugees started to arrive in Europe.

“I spoke about this often, we had all neglected providing assistance to refugee camps in Syria, and many refugees taking shelter in Turkey,” she said.

The chancellor underlined that the EU-Turkey refugee agreement of 2016 has been successful in significantly reducing the irregular refugee flows, and improving the conditions of Syrian refugees in Turkey.

She recalled the EU promised with that agreement to resettle some of the refugees throughout member states.

“Turkey would not have agreed to this deal, if we did not agree to take in refugees from Turkey,” she said.

Challenging Merkel’s humanitarian approach during the news conference, Orban argued that this was serving as a “pull factor”, encouraging more migrants to try entering Europe.

Instead, the Hungarian prime minister advocated stricter measures at the EU’s external borders, to stop illegal crossings.

“It is unfair that many in Germany accuse us of not showing enough solidarity.

"In fact, in Hungary some 8,000 armed guards are conducting 24-hour patrols at the border,” he said.

Orban argued that in the absence of such measures by Hungary, thousands of migrants would have come to Germany everyday.

Merkel has been under growing pressure at home to address the refugee issue.

She has recently agreed to stricter measures, after her coalition partner CSU’s leader and Interior Minister Horst Seehofer threatened to quit the government.

Germany received more than a million refugees in the last thee years, mostly from Syria and Iraq.

Merkel’s decision in 2015 to open doors for refugees fleeing conflicts and persecution was widely criticized by conservatives, and was exploited by the far-right and populist parties.